US President Trump had announced sweeping reciprocal tariffs on a number of countries, including India and China, on April 2. Highlighting the high tariffs imposed by India on American goods, Trump announced a “discounted reciprocal tariff” of 26 per cent on India.
US President Donald Trump has once again claimed that India is prepared to eliminate 100 per cent tariffs on American goods as part of an upcoming trade agreement between the two nations. In an interview with Fox News, Trump hinted that a trade deal with New Delhi is “coming soon”, but added that he is “not in a rush” to finalise it. Notably, this is not the first time Trump has spoken optimistically about a potential India-US trade deal. However, the repeated assertion that India is willing to drop all tariffs on American imports has sparked a cautious response from Indian authorities.
Responding to the remarks in New Delhi. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar made it clear that any trade agreement must be grounded in fairness and reciprocity. “Any trade deal has to be mutually beneficial,” Jaishankar stated, outlining India’s stance that negotiations must reflect the interests of both sides.
Trump again described India as “one of the highest tariff nations in the world.” “They make it almost impossible to do business. Do you know that they are willing to cut 100 per cent of their tariffs for the United States?” Trump said.
When asked if the deal with India is coming soon, Trump said, “That’ll come soon…I am in no rush…Look, everybody wants to make a deal with us…South Korea wants to make a deal but I’m not going to make deals with everybody…I’m just going to set the limit…I’ll make some other deals…Because I can’t, you can’t meet with that many people…I’ve got 150 countries that want to make deals.”
Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal in US
Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal is currently in Washington to assess the progress of negotiations for the proposed trade agreement. He is expected to hold talks with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer.
Both sides eye key duty concessions
To boost bilateral trade, India is seeking duty concessions for labour-intensive sectors like textiles, gems and jewellery, leather goods, garments, plastics, chemicals, shrimp, oil seeds, chemicals, grapes, and bananas in the proposed pact with America. On the other hand, the US wants duty concessions in sectors like certain industrial goods, automobiles (electric vehicles in particular), wines, petrochemical products, dairy, agriculture items such as apples, and tree nuts.
(With inputs from PTI)
ALSO READ: ‘I don’t want you building in India’: President Donald Trump to Apple CEO Tim Cook | Watch Video
