U.S. President Trump says tariffs on India to be reduced soon, trade deal on the anvil

U.S. President Donald Trump said tariffs on India will be reduced soon, and the much-touted trade deal between India and the U.S. is on the anvil. Trump made these remarks during the swearing-in ceremony of Sergio Gor, the U.S. ambassador to India and special envoy to Central and South Asia.

“Right now, the tariffs are very high on India because of the Russian oil, and they have stopped doing the Russian oil… It’s being reduced very substantially. We will bring the tariffs down at some point,” Trump was quoted as saying during a White House press briefing. Currently, India faces a total tariff rate of 50%—of which 25% are reciprocal tariffs. This was followed by the Trump administration imposing an additional 25% tariff as retribution for India’s imports of Russian oil—one of the highest tariff rates in the world.

Trump also said he is entrusting Gor with strengthening one of the U.S.’s most important international relationships—the strategic partnership with the Republic of India. “It’s a big deal,” he added. According to Trump, he has a fantastic relationship with Prime Minister Modi, and Sergio is only enhancing that because “he’s already become friendly with the Prime Minister”. “It’s a very important relationship, but it’s also the fastest-growing middle class, and an important economic and strategic security partner in the Indo-Pacific region,” he added.

The U.S. President also said that his administration is close to reaching a consensus on a strategically important trade deal. “We are getting a fair deal, just a fair trade deal…We are making a deal with India, a much different deal than we had in the past,” he said at the press briefing, reinforcing his optimism that a trade deal is imminent. “We are getting close.”

In October, Union Commerce and Industry minister Piyush Goyal said that trade talks between India and the U.S. are progressing and a “fair and equitable deal” is likely to be worked out in the near future. “We are in dialogue with the United States of America. Our teams are engaged. We recently had the Commerce Secretary visit the U.S., and he met with his counterparts. We continue to engage with them, and the talks are progressing,” Goyal said, exemplifying the congenial nature of the negotiations.