‘Very big’ trade deal coming, maybe with India: Trump

After concluding a trade deal with China, US President Donald Trump has said that a "very big" trade agreement with India may be signed soon.

- SHREYA NANDI

"We just signed (a trade deal) with China. We are not going to make deals with everybody... But we're having some great deals. We have one coming up, maybe with India, very big one, where we're going to open up India," Trump said while speaking at a White House event on Thursday.

Trump's comments come at a time when a trade delegation from New Delhi, led by Chief Negotiator Rajesh Agrawal, is in Washington DC to hold further talks for a trade deal.

The ongoing in-person round of talks between New Delhi and Washington is crucial, considering that the end of the 90-day pause on the US's plan to impose country-specific reciprocal tariffs on July 9 is less than a fortnight away. Both are aiming to finalise an "early tranche" or first part of a broader trade deal — bilateral trade agreement (BTA) — that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump had announced in February.

The Trump administration announced reciprocal tariffs on countries, including India (26 per cent), on April 2. Subsequently, it announced a 90-day pause on those tariffs to negotiate trade deals while retaining a universal 10 per cent tariff on countries.