US-India trade deal to be on the lines of Indonesia pact: Donald Trump

US President Donald Trump has said that India is working along the same lines as Indonesia in order to reach a trade deal with the United States.

“We made a deal with Indonesia. I spoke to their really great President, strong and smart, and we made the deal. We have full access to Indonesia. We will pay no tariffs. So, they are giving us access into Indonesia which we never had. That’s probably the biggest part of the deal. India, basically, is working along the same lines,” Trump told reporters.

“We are gonna have access to India. We had no access to any of these countries. Now we are getting access because of what we are doing with the tariffs,” Trump said, adding that Indonesia is paying 19% tariffs while the US is not paying anything.

Trump stated that the pact with Indonesia is similar to previous deals made with Vietnam. It establishes a uniform tariff—almost twice the current 10%—on goods Indonesia exports to the U.S., while allowing American products to enter Indonesia duty-free. Additionally, the agreement includes measures to prevent Chinese goods from being rerouted through Indonesia and contains a pledge from Jakarta to buy American-made products.

This comes two weeks after Trump said that the upcoming trade deal between India and the US is going to be of a “different kind” with “much less tariffs”. "I think we are going to have a deal with India. And that is going to be a different kind of a deal. It is going to be a deal where we are able to go in and compete. Right now, India does not accept anybody in. I think India is going to do that, and if they do that, we are going to have a deal for much less tariffs," Trump had said.

Trump had unveiled a broad set of tariffs on April 2. As part of the "reciprocal tariff" plan, Indian exports to the U.S. were hit with an added 26% tariff. However, on April 9, the U.S. administration approved a 90-day delay in enforcing most of the tariffs, temporarily shifting back to a uniform 10% rate for nearly all affected countries.

Earlier in July, Trump sent tariff letters to 14 countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, Korea, South Africa, Kazakhstan, Laos, Tunisia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Neighbouring Bangladesh faces a 35% reciprocal tariff rate from August 1.