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Donald Trump claims India offered US a 'zero tariffs' trade deal
Donald Trump's statement comes amid India's ongoing attempts to seek a trade deal with the US within the 90-day pause on the sweeping reciprocal tariffs.
US President Donald Trump, who is on a three-nation visit to the Middle East, on Thursday claimed that India has offered Washington a “zero tariffs” trade deal. A commerce ministry spokesperson said the “details of the negotiation cannot be divulged”.
Trump, while speaking at an event with business leaders in Qatar, said the Indian government has “offered us a deal where basically they are willing to literally charge us no tariff", Bloomberg quoted him as saying. However, Trump did not offer any further details into India's apparent offer.
Additionally, Trump said he spoke with Apple Inc. chief executive officer Tim Cook and discouraged him from expanding operations in India. "I said I don't want you building in India," the US President mentioned his conversation with Cook.
As a result, Trump said, Apple will be "upping their production in the United States".
The US President's remarks on tariffs come in the backdrop of New Delhi's ongoing attempts to seek a trade deal with Washington within the 90-day pause on the sweeping reciprocal tariffs. Trump had imposed a 26 per cent levy on India during his April 9 ‘Liberation Day’ announcements.
Trump's ‘trade’ claim on India-Pak ceasefire
Trump's statement also gains significance in view of his recent remarks about the ceasefire between India and Pakistan. The US president was the first one on May 10 to announce that the nuclear-armed neighbor nations had agreed to a "full and immediate" ceasefire following long nights of talks.
Meanwhile, India asserted that the understanding with Pakistan was reached after conversations between the directors general of military operations of both the nations.
Trump had claimed that trade was a big reason behind the decision made by India and Pakistan in stopping the military hostilities against each other.
At a time when both countries were “going at it hot and heavy and it was seemingly not going to stop”, the US “helped a lot”, including with trade, to pull the two sides back from the brink, the US President said. He added, "I said, come on, we’re going to do a lot of trade with you guys, let’s stop it."
Trump further claimed that the US will "do a lot of trade" with India and Pakistan. “We’re negotiating with India right now, we’re going to be soon negotiating with Pakistan and we stopped a nuclear conflict. I think it could have been a bad nuclear war , millions of people could have been killed,” he said.
However, these claims were rejected by India. People familiar with the matter had said that trade did not figure at all in the recent discussions between top US and Indian leaders on the Indo-Pak crisis, HT had reported.
HT's report stated that there was no mention of trade when US vice president JD Vance spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 9, or when Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to external affairs minister S Jaishankar on May 8 and to National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on May 10.
One of the persons familiar with the matter had said, “There was no reference to trade in any of these discussions.”
Indian and American negotiators are in the last stage of finalizing the first part of a bilateral trade agreement, with Trump and PM Modi decided at their February meeting in Washington would conclude by fall of 2025.
In addition to his trade claims, Trump had also offered to mediate between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue, saying that will work with both the sides to see if a solution can be arrived at.
India, however, has made it clear that it only engage with Pakistan at the level of the DGMOs and there will be no talks on any other issues such as Kashmir or the Indus Waters Treaty.
