US President Donald Trump on Tuesday hinted at moving closer to a trade deal with India and said that, at some point, the US would lower tariffs on India. The remarks came during the swearing-in ceremony
of Sergio Gor as the Ambassador to India.
“We’re making a deal with India. Much different than we had. Right now, they don’t love me but they will love us again. We’re getting a fair deal. They’re very good negotiators so Sergio you will have to take a look at that. I think we’re pretty close to doing a deal that is good for everybody,” Trump said.
While speaking to reporters at the Oval Office after the swearing-in of Gor, Trump responded to a query on how close the trade deal is with India and whether he would consider lowering the tariffs on New Delhi.
The US President said, “Well, right now, the tariffs are very high on India because of the Russian oil, and they’ve stopped doing the Russian oil. It’s been reduced very substantially. Yeah, we’re going to be bringing the tariffs down. At some point, we’re going to be bringing them down.”
Meanwhile, earlier in November, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal indicated that talks on the India-US Bilateral Trade Agreement are “going on very well”, but said that there are “many sensitive and serious issues” and it would take time.
“Talks are going on very well. There are many sensitive issues, many serious issues, so naturally, it takes some time,” Goyal was quoted as saying by news agency ANI, when asked to provide an update on India-US trade talks.
So far, five rounds of talks have been completed since March for the first phase of the bilateral trade agreement, initially decided to be inked by the “fall of 2025.”
The bilateral trade agreement, formally proposed in February following directives from leaders of both countries, aims to more than double trade volumes from the current USD 191 billion to USD 500 billion by 2030.
(With agency inputs)
