The long arc of our US trade deal may end in a win-win

The Donald Trump administration's trade negotiations with US trade partners have picked up pace in recent weeks.

- PUJA MEHRA & ARPITA MUKHERJEE

Tariff deals have been announced with nearly all major partners: the UK, Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan and the EU.

Talks with China, perhaps the trickiest, are ongoing; A 90-day extension of the tariff and export control détente struck in mid-May seems likely—a negotiating team led by US Treasury chief Scott Bessent and top Chinese economic officials held talks in Stockholm on 28 July for more than five hours, and again on July 29 to resolve long-standing economic disputes and reach a tariff agreement.

In contrast, US negotiations with India, even after numerous rounds of talks conducted in Washington and New Delhi, appear to have lagged.

It's clear that US President Donald Trump is not settling for win-win deals, and that may be what's slowing progress with India. The White House is handing out lopsided deals: US trade partners must accept its one-sided terms or have the sweeping 'Liberation Day' tariffs that Trump announced on 2 April imposed on their exports.

Countries whose economies are heavily dependent on exports can't really hold out and are consenting to drop their tariffs on US exports—to zero in many cases. Vietnam, for example, got a pretty raw deal. While tariffs on Vietnamese exports have reduced from 46% to 20%, America has got duty-free access to Vietnam's market. Worse, Vietnam's exports of transhipped goods will still face a 40% US import duty.