15-May-2025 07:58 PM
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New Delhi, May 15 (Reporter) Amid US President Donald Trump stating that India has offered the US a trade deal wherein “basically they are willing to literally charge us no tariff”, EAM S Jaishankar said today that negotiations with the US are still going on, and that any trade deal has to be mutually beneficial.
Speaking to reporters outside the new Honduras Embassy, the EAM said:
“Between India and the US, trade talks have been going on. A team from India is just going there at this point of time.
“These are complicated negotiations, very intricate negotiations. Nothing is decided till everything is.
“But any trade deal has to be mutually beneficial; it has to work for both the countries.
“I think that would be our expectation from the trade deal. And until that is done, any judgment on it would be premature,” he added.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump, while speaking in Doha reiterated his allegation that India charges the US very high tariffs.
“…because India is one of the highest tariff nations in the world. It is very hard to sell in India.
“And they’ve offered us a deal where they’re basically willing to literally charge us no tariff,” the US
President claimed.
“So you go from the highest tariff -- you couldn’t do business in India, we’re not even in the top 30 in India, because the tariff is so high-- to a point where they’ve actually told us, that there will be no tariff. They were the highest, and now they are saying no tariff.”
According to reports, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal is visiting the US on May 16 at the head of a trade delegation to take forward the negotiations on a free trade deal with the US.
Minister Goyal will be accompanied by Rajesh Agrawal, India’s chief negotiator for bilateral trade talks.
India is seeking to clinch a trade deal with the US within the 90-day pause on tariff hikes announced by Trump on April 9 for major trading partners, including a 26 per cent tariff on India...////...