Washington DC [US], July 17 (ANI): US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the United States is close to finalizing a trade deal with India, indicating that negotiations are underway and progressing well. Speaking to reporters during a bilateral meeting with Bahrain’s Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, Trump suggested that an agreement with India could be announced soon.
“… We’ve brought in over $100 billion. The tariffs haven’t kicked in significantly, except for automobiles and steel. August 1 is when very substantial money comes into our country. We’ve made deals with numerous places. We had one yesterday,” Trump said, referring to recent trade pacts.
He added, “We have another one (deal) coming up, maybe with India… We’re in negotiation. When I send out a letter, that’s a deal… The best deal we can make is to send out a letter, and the letter says that you’ll pay 30%, 35%, 25%, 20%… We have some pretty good deals to announce… We’re very close to a deal with India where they open it up.”
On Tuesday, Trump said the US was working on a deal that would grant it access to Indian markets, a key goal of his administration’s trade agenda. He also announced a new trade deal with Indonesia, under which the latter will face a reduced tariff rate of 19 percent.
Announcing progress with India, Trump stated, “We’re going to have access into India. And you have to understand, we had no access into any of these countries. Our people couldn’t go in. And now we’re getting access because of what we’re doing with the tariffs.”
Meanwhile, Indian government officials confirmed on Tuesday that bilateral trade talks between New Delhi and Washington were moving forward, as directed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Trump.
“Our team is back in the US for carrying out the fifth round of negotiations on the bilateral trade agreement, so that agreement is progressing as per the decisions of our leaders and as per the terms of reference decided between the two countries,” the officials told ANI. (ANI)
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