Trump says US ‘pretty close’ to a fair trade deal with India

LATE LAST MONTH, an official said here that the two countries were "very near"to concluding the proposed initial BTA, as both sides were "converging" on most of the issues.

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The official, however, added that a decision on whether and when to conclude the deal would have to come from "higher political leadership" on both sides.

Even as work on the initial part of BTA with New Delhi was believed to be on, Trump announced a reciprocal tariff of 25% on India along with different levels of such additional levies for most other countries on August 7. Subsequently, on August 27, the US imposed another 25% tariff on India as a penal measure for buying oil from Russia. These tariffs cover about 60% of India's exports to the US, and have already hit shipments from some labour-intensive sectors like textiles & garments and gems & jewellery pretty hard.