President Donald Trump declared that New Delhi has agreed to “cut their tariffs way down”; however, India claims that it has not committed to reducing import charges on US goods.
Trump has disrupted international trade in just a few weeks of his second administration, focusing on both allies and adversaries.
Additionally, he accused all trading partners of engaging in “unfair” tactics and declared that reciprocal tariffs would be imposed on a number of nations, including India, starting next month.
Trump once again railed at India’s “massive tariffs” last week.
“You can’t sell anything into India, it is almost restrictive,” Trump said.
“They have agreed, by the way, they want to cut their tariffs way down now because somebody is finally exposing them for what they have done,” he added.
But the Indian government told a parliamentary panel that “no commitments had been made to the US on the issue,” a report in The Times of India newspaper said Tuesday.
The government “has sought time until September to address the issue that is being repeatedly flagged by the American president,” it added.
India’s commerce secretary Sunil Barthwal “said that India and the US were working towards a mutually beneficial bilateral trade agreement, focusing on long-term trade cooperation instead of merely seeking immediate tariffs adjustments”.
During his visit to the White House last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi recognized that he has a “special bond” with the Indian leader.
There will be a “mutually beneficial trade agreement” signed “very soon” between the world’s largest and fifth-largest economies, according to Modi.
India’s information technology and services industries rely heavily on the U.S. market, but in recent years, Washington has sold New Delhi new military gear worth billions of dollars.
Later this year, Trump might travel to India for a summit of heads of state from the Quad, which consists of the US, Japan, Australia, and India.
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