Deal allows India to maintain farm safeguards, says Trump aide Greer

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION is working to put the details of its trade deal with India announced on Monday on paper, but it will reduce India's tariffs on American industrial goods to zero from 13.5% and eliminate duties but allow India to maintain some agricultural import protections, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Tuesday.

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Greer told CNBC in a live interview that the US would continue to work on access to certain protected areas of India's agriculture sector, but said India's tariffs "for a variety of things, you know, tree nuts, wine, spirits, fruits, vegetables, etc, they're going down to zero.”

He did not mention rice, beef, soybeans, sugar or dairy, which are commodities that India excluded from its recent trade deal with the European Union.

Greer confirmed that the deal would reduce the US tariff on most Indian goods to 18% from 50% because of the size and growth of India’s trade surplus with the US. That reached $53.5 billion during the first 11 months of 2025, up from $45.8 billion for all of 2024, according to US Census Bureau data.