Skip to main content

India has offered US a trade deal with no tariffs: Trump

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that India had offered a trade deal that proposed “no tariffs” for American goods, while expressing his dissatisfaction with Apple’s (AAPL.O) plans to invest in India.

New Delhi is seeking to clinch a trade deal with the US within the 90-day pause announced by Trump on April 9 on tariff hikes for major trading partners.

“It is very hard to sell in India, and they are offering us a deal where basically they are willing to literally charge us no tariffs,” Trump said in a meeting with executives in the Qatari capital Doha.

Reuters has reported that New Delhi has offered to reduce duties to zero on 60 per cent of tariff lines in a first phase of the deal under negotiation with Washington, while offering preferential access to nearly 90pc of the merchandise India imports from the US.

India’s equity benchmarks jumped to a seven-month high after Trump’s comment on the deal with India.

The Indian trade ministry did not reply to a mail seeking comments on the proposed deal.

Trump in Doha said he had confronted Apple’s CEO Tim Cook about shifting production to India, as the American company moves to make most of its iPhones sold in the United States at factories in India by the end of 2026, and is speeding up those plans to navigate potentially higher tariffs in China.

“Tim, we treated you very good, we put up with all the plants you built in China for years … we are not interested in you building in India, India can take care of themselves, they are doing very well, we want you to build here”, Trump recalled himself telling Cook, who was not in the Doha meeting.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has in recent years promoted India as a smartphone manufacturing hub and Apple’s suppliers have ramped up production in the country.

In March, Apple’s main India suppliers Foxconn and Tata shipped nearly $2 billion worth of iPhones to the US, an all-time high, to bypass Trump’s impending tariffs.

The United States is India’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade totalling some $129bn in 2024. The trade balance is currently in favour of India, which runs a $45.7bn surplus with the US.

India’s trade minister Piyush Goyal will lead a trade delegation to the United States starting May 16 to advance trade negotiations, two government officials told Reuters on Tuesday.

India has some of the world’s highest tariffs on imports, and Trump has previously called India a “tariff abuser”.



from The Dawn News - Home https://ift.tt/1vcpB5J
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ministers rubbish notion that proposed retirement age extension to favour ‘one particular institution’

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Tuesday rubbished the notion that a proposed extension in the retirement age was to favour “one particular institution”, adding that the move would be implemented across the board if approved. The rebuttal comes in the wake of media reports claiming that the government was mulling changes to the Constitution to fix the tenure of the chief justice . Currently, judges of the Supreme Court, including the chief justice, retire after attaining the age of superannuation, i.e. 65 years, as stipulated in Article 179 of the Constitution. While giving his opinion recently on the reports of the constitutional amendment, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar had said he “will not vehemently turn down the proposals related to the tenure of the chief justice”. Addressing the issue during a press conference in Islamabad today along since Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and the law minister, Attaullah said the extension in the retirement age was “a proposal to a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Explainer: Iran’s economy faces rocky road amid rising prices, falling currency

Iran’s economy is going through one of its most difficult periods in years, fueled by sanctions, high inflation, and a significant drop in the value of the national currency, the rial. These pressures have had a direct impact on living standards and have also fueled recent protests. The protests began on Dec. 28 in commercial hubs in the capital Tehran, when shopkeepers, merchants, and small business owners staged strikes and demonstrations to protest soaring inflation, the collapsing rial, and deteriorating economic conditions, and have since grown into nationwide anti-government expressions of discontent involving workers, students, and others across multiple cities. The Iranian president said Sunday that his government is determined to address Iran’s economic problems amid the protests. Masoud Pezeshkian said the government admits to “shortcomings and problems” and is working hard to alleviate the people’s concerns, especially on the economy. Currency collapse at the centre of c...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Republican primary race for president in 2024

The Republican primary race for president in 2024 is already shaping up to be a competitive one. There are a number of high-profile candidates who have already announced their intention to run, and more are expected to join the field in the coming months. The frontrunner for the nomination is former President Donald Trump. Trump has been teasing a 2024 run for months, and he has a large and loyal following among Republican voters. However, he is also a polarizing figure, and his candidacy could alienate some moderate Republicans. Another potential contender for the nomination is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. DeSantis has been praised by many conservatives for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and his opposition to vaccine mandates. He is also seen as a rising star in the Republican Party. Other potential candidates include former Vice President Mike Pence, former Ambassador Nikki Haley, and Senator Tim Scott. Pence is a more traditional Republican who could appeal to moderate vote...
1 comment
Read more