India-US trade deal: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that America is working on a deal with India which gives greater access to Indian markets. Trump’s comments came on the back of a trade deal announcement with Indonesia, after which the latter will face a reduced tariff rate of 19%.Talking about the deal that has been finalised with Indonesia, Trump said the US is working on similar lines for an agreement with India. “We made a deal with Indonesia. I spoke to their really great president…and we made the deal. We have full access to Indonesia, everything. As you know, Indonesia is very strong on copper, but we have full access to everything. We will pay no tariffs. They are giving us access into Indonesia, which we never had. That’s probably the biggest part of the deal…India is basically working along that same line.”Also Read | Trump announces new deal! Indonesia faces reduced 19% tariff rate; to buy $15 billion in US energy, 50 Boeing jets & more“We’re going to have access into India. You have to understand, we had no access to 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…,” Trump said.
India-US trade deal: What’s the latest?
Trump’s comments on increased access to Indian markets comes at a time when a team of India’s commerce ministry officials are in the US for trade deal talks. The officials arrived in the US on Monday and India’s chief negotiator Rajesh Agarwal is expected to reach Washington later this week.Also Read | Trump tariff war: Deal or no deal – why it won’t matter much for IndiaMeanwhile, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has said that India-US trade deal talks are progressing at a ‘fast pace’.“Negotiations are going on at a very fast pace and in the spirit of mutual cooperation so that we can come out with a win-win trade complementing agreement with the United States,” Goyal said.Last week a Bloomberg report said that the Trump administration is mulling a trade deal in which India will likely face tariffs of less than 20%, down from the 26% announced by Trump in April this year.Also Read | India-US trade deal: Why Indian importers are delaying customs clearance of American dry fruit; ‘opting to pay penalty because…’Donald Trump has set a fresh deadline of August 1, 2025 for reciprocal tariffs to be effective. Since last week he has been sending tariff letters to various US trading partners. Over 20 countries have received a tariff letter so far. India has not received any tariff letter from the US, possibly due to ongoing trade negotiations between the countries. Last week Trump had indicated that the US is nearing a trade deal with India.
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