While talking on the India-US commerce deal, the White House mentioned Trump shares a “very good relationship” with Modi and the settlement is nearing completion.
US President Donald Trump (R) and PM Narendra Modi throughout a information convention within the East Room of the White House in Washington DC. (File)(Bloomberg)
“Yes, the President mentioned that final week (that the US and India are very near a commerce deal), and it stays true. I simply spoke to our Secretary of Commerce about it. He was within the Oval Office with the President. They are finalising these agreements, and you will hear from the President and his commerce crew very quickly with regards to India,” ANI information company quoted her as saying.
Responding to a query relating to China’s position within the Indo-Pacific, Leavitt reiterated, “India stays a really strategic ally within the Asia Pacific and the President has an excellent relationship with Prime Minister Modi, and he’ll proceed to have that.”
Her remarks come as External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is at present visiting the United States to take part within the QUAD Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. The QUAD, consisting of Australia, India, Japan, and the US, is targeted on selling a free, open, and resilient Indo-Pacific. The alliance started as a coordinated humanitarian response following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Meanwhile, it was earlier confirmed on June 18 that US President Donald Trump accepted PM Modi’s invitation to attend the upcoming QUAD Summit in New Delhi. “For the next meeting of QUAD, PM Modi invited President Trump to India. While accepting the invitation, President Trump said that he is excited to come to India,” Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri mentioned in a video message.
India-US commerce talks
On June 26, India and the US started one other spherical of bilateral commerce talks aimed toward finalising an early harvest deal earlier than the US imposes country-specific reciprocal tariffs on imports from 57 nations, together with India, beginning July 9, in accordance with folks conversant in the discussions.
Led by chief negotiator and particular secretary for commerce Rajesh Agrawal, the Indian delegation arrived in Washington for a two-day spherical of talks starting final week. The principal purpose of this spherical is to deal with current commerce disputes and attain an interim settlement that might kind the premise for the primary part of a Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) by September or October 2025.
After this preliminary part, each side are anticipated to start negotiations for a full-fledged free commerce settlement (FTA) with the purpose of doubling bilateral commerce to $500 billion by 2030.
India is pushing for the US to roll again all present and deliberate retaliatory tariffs, together with a 26% reciprocal tariff – comprising a ten% obligation that took impact on April 5 and a further 16% set to start from July 9.
Sources concerned within the talks mentioned a lot of the parts of a preliminary settlement have been ironed out by negotiators, however remaining selections now relaxation with the political management to resolve a couple of remaining variations. Two main sticking factors proceed to carry up the deal, they added.
India can also be urging the US to eradicate safeguard duties – at present being challenged on the World Trade Organisation – such because the 50% tariffs on metal and aluminium and the 25% duties on vehicles and auto components. In return, India expects Washington to decrease its most favoured nation (MFN) tariffs proportionately.
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