U.S. President Donald Trump stated America goes to have a “very big” trade deal with India, hinting at vital progress within the negotiation strategy of a long-awaited bilateral trade settlement between the 2 nations.
“We’re having some great deals. We have one coming up, maybe with India, a very big one, where we’re going to open up India,” Mr. Trump said during an event at the White House promoting passage of the GOP’s tax and spending cuts legislation on Thursday (June 26, 2025).
“In the China deal, we’re starting to open up China. Things that never really could have happened, and the relationship with every country has been very good,” Mr. Trump stated.
The president, nevertheless, didn’t elaborate on the main points of the deal signed with China.
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He said that every country wanted to make a deal and have a part of it, and his administration officials were working overtime, making deals with countries.
“You remember a few months ago, the press was saying, ‘Do you really have anybody of any interest?’ Well, we just signed with China yesterday, right? We just signed with China. We have everybody. We’re not going to make deals with everybody. Some we’re just going to send them a letter and say thank you very much. You’re going to pay 25%, 35%, 45%. That’s the easy way to do it, and my people don’t want to do it that way. They want to do some of it, but they want to make more deals than I would do,” he said.
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Indian staff in Washington for talks
Mr. Trump’s remarks come as an Indian staff headed by chief negotiator Rajesh Agarwal on Thursday (June 26, 2025) arrived in Washington for the following spherical of trade talks with the U.S.
Mr. Agrawal is the particular secretary within the Department of Commerce.
India and the U.S. are engaged in negotiations for an interim trade deal and try to finalise a pact earlier than July 9.
The excessive tariffs introduced by the U.S. on April 2 have been suspended by the Trump administration until July 9.
Duty concession calls for
Agriculture and dairy sectors are tough and difficult areas for India to present responsibility concessions to the U.S. India has not opened up dairy in any of its free trade pacts signed to date.
The U.S. needs responsibility concessions on sure industrial items, cars — particularly electrical autos, wines, petrochemical merchandise, dairy, and agricultural gadgets like apples, tree nuts, and genetically modified crops.
India is looking for responsibility concessions for labour-intensive sectors like textiles, gems and jewelry, leather-based items, clothes, plastics, chemical compounds, shrimp, oil seeds, grapes, and bananas within the proposed trade pact.
‘Optimisitic’
Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick stated that one ought to anticipate a trade deal between India and the U.S. within the “not too distant future”, underlining that he’s “very optimistic” about it.
“So the idea is when they put the right person and India put the right person on the other side of the table, and we’ve managed, I think, to be in a very, very good place. And you should expect a deal between the United States and India in the not-too-distant future because I think we found a place that really works for both countries,” Mr. Lutnick stated in his keynote deal with on the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) Leadership Summit.
The two nations wish to conclude talks for the primary tranche of the proposed bilateral trade settlement (BTA) by fall (September-October) this 12 months. The pact is aimed toward greater than doubling bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030 from the present $191 billion.
Published – June 27, 2025 11:31 am IST