India, US still negotiating, says Trump after threat of 25 per cent tariff

New York: President Donald Trump has said that India and the US were still negotiating a trade deal despite his threat to impose a 25 per cent tariff, and a final decision may be known by the end of the week.

“We’re talking to India now, we’ll see what happens,” he said on Wednesday, hours after he had threatened the 25 per cent tariffs and the 100 per cent penalty for buyers of Russian energy he had proposed.

He said that India, which he asserted has one of the highest tariffs in the world, was now “willing to cut it very substantially.”

However, he was silent on the Russian penalty when asked by a reporter and instead spoke of the 10 per cent penalty he had proposed for BRICS members.

Since he says negotiations are continuing, the morning threat appears to be a negotiating ploy and gives both countries wiggle room to reach an accord.

He has also not issued a formal letter on the tariffs, as he has to some other countries.

India had replied defiantly to the threat, saying the government “will take all steps necessary to secure our national interest.”

India indicated that agriculture was likely a sticking point in the negotiations.

The statement said, “The government attaches the utmost importance to protecting and promoting the welfare of our farmers, entrepreneurs, and MSMEs (Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises).”

The US wants India to open its markets to US agriculture and dairy, which could impact its vast agriculture sector.

Trump and his officials, like Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, had spoken optimistically that India would be among the first to make a deal, but it hasn’t materialised.

India was among the first countries to start trade negotiations with Washington on tariffs, and Trump had repeatedly said that an agreement was imminent, most recently last week.

The negotiations were making “fantastic” progress, India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said last week in a media interview in London.

“I do hope we’ll be able to conclude a very consequential partnership,” he said.

In its response, India’s Commerce Ministry said, “India and the US have been engaged in negotiations on concluding a fair, balanced and mutually beneficial bilateral trade agreement over the last few months.”

“We remain committed to that objective,” it added.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump called Prime Minister Narendra Modi “a friend of mine,” as he usually prefaces differences on tariffs.

He said, nonchalantly, “It doesn’t matter too much whether we have a deal or whether we charge them a certain tariff, but you’ll know at the end of this week.”

He repeated his tirade about India’s high tariffs, saying that while the US buys a lot from India, the US doesn’t sell as much there because of the tariffs.

India had the highest or one of the highest tariffs in the world, with levies going as high as 175 per cent, he said.

When a reporter asked him about the penalty for buying Russian energy, he did not answer that and, instead, veered off into talking about BRICS and how it was “anti-United States.”

“India is a member of that, if you can believe it,” he said.

“It’s an attack on the dollar, and we’re not going to let anybody attack the dollar,” he said.

So, when it comes to India, he said, “It’s partially BRICS, and it’s partially the trade.”

In the Truth Social post, Trump had said India has “always bought a vast majority of their military equipment from Russia, and are Russia’s largest buyer of energy, along with China, at a time when everyone wants Russia to stop the killing in Ukraine.”

“All things not good! India will therefore be paying a tariff of 25 per cent, plus a penalty for the above, starting on August first,” he wrote, capitalising parts of the post in his style.

–IANS