Soon after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee that a trade deal with India was “close to getting done”, US President Donald Trump suggested that a deal was in the offing. Though he alleged that India “took advantage of US policies,” Trump lavished praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"We will get to a deal because I like your prime minister a lot. He is a good friend of mine. We get along great, and we are gonna make a deal," Trump told reporters at the Oval Office on Thursday.
On the negotiations, Trump said India had taken advantage of US policies for years and charged tremendous tariffs. "They charged tremendous amounts of tariffs to our companies, and we didn't charge them anything," Trump said, citing the case of Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
"In the past, they wouldn't let Harley-Davidson sell its motorcycles. They charged a 200 per cent tariff, so Harley-Davidson was precluded. They ended up going to India and building their own plants, which is unfortunate that that happened, but it happens. It was before me," Trump said.
He said Indian motorcycle brands never faced any such barriers in the US market. "They sold motorbikes here, too. You know (how much) we charged them? Nothing. And now it's the exact reverse. We're making a lot of money with India," Trump said.
This comes as a US delegation landed in earlier this week and concluded four days of negotiations on an interim bilateral agreement on Thursday. US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor welcomed Assistant Trade Representative Brendan Lynch to India as the two countries continue to make progress in finalising the bilateral trade deal. Gor later posted on X that progress was being made under the guidance of the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump, aimed at deepening trade and investment linkages between the two countries. He added that negotiations were in the final stages and only 1% of the work remains to be completed.
However, a statement released by the Commerce Ministry made no mention of the timeline for signing the pact, but reports said efforts are on to have a pact in place as soon as possible.
India has reportedly demanded a tariff advantage in the US market in relation to its competors, which include other Asian countries.
On February 7, after a phone call between Trump and Modi, India and the US issued a joint statement finalising the contours or framework of the first phase of the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) or an interim trade deal. As per that, the US would reduce tariffs on India to 18 per cent from 50 per cent. It had removed the 25 per cent tariffs on Indian goods for buying Russian oil and was to cut the remaining 25 per cent to 18 per cent under the pact.
However, the US Supreme Court on February 20 ruled against Trump's sweeping reciprocal tariffs, which were imposed under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
After that, the US president announced the imposition of 10 per cent tariffs on all countries for 150 days, starting February 24.
