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‘They are going to have heyday’: Trump official on India's trade deal with EU in first US reaction
India and the EU concluded a FTA described as the 'mother of all deals'. Leaders from both sides presented trade as a safeguard against protectionism.
India has emerged “on top” in the trade agreement with the European Union (EU) and is set to benefit strongly from it, US trade representative Jamieson Greer said in what was the first reaction from President Donald Trump’s administration to the free trade pact between the two sides.
New Delhi and the European Union (EU) finalised a free trade deal described as the “mother of all deals”. Leaders from both sides presented trade as a safeguard against protectionism and vowed to strengthen a rules-based global system while expanding security and defence ties.
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The agreement comes at a time when both sides are trying to respond to what von der Leyen called a world where “trade is increasingly weaponised”, in a dig at the Trump administration’s shifting tariff approach, which has unsettled global trade.
US reacts to India-EU free trade agreement
In an interview with Fox Business on Tuesday, Greer said that “India comes out on top” because New Delhi will now gain “more market access into Europe”.
“I’ve looked at some of the details of the deal so far. I think India comes out on top on this, frankly. They get more market access into Europe,” he said.
“It sounds like they (India) have some additional immigration rights. I don’t know for sure, but President Ursula von der Leyen of the EU has talked about mobility for Indian workers into Europe. So I think on net, India is going to have a heyday with this. They have low-cost labour,” Greer added.
He said it appears the EU is pushing further into globalisation, while the US is trying to “fix some of the problems of globalisation here in the US”.
When asked for a comment on the India-EU trade deal, Greer said that since Trump has focused on boosting domestic production and begun charging what he described as a fee for other countries to enter the US market, those countries are now looking for other places to send their extra goods.
“So the EU is turning to India to try to find a place. The EU is so trade dependent, they need other outlets if they can’t keep sending all their stuff to the United States,” he added.
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Washington on Trump’s 25 per cent tariff on India
Answering a question on the 25 per cent tariff linked to India’s purchase of Russian oil, Greer said New Delhi continues to pay those charges, along with the 25 per cent reciprocal tariff placed on the country by the Trump administration.
When asked whether India is still buying Russian oil, Greer said, “They have made a lot of progress on this. I’m in frequent contact with my counterpart in India. I have a great working relationship with him, but they still have a way to go on this point. They like the discount that you get from Russian oil; it’s close by, so it’s hard for them.”
He said the US treasury department introduced more sanctions a few weeks ago, and added that the US expects India “to continue to wind that down, but we’re watching it closely”.
The free trade agreement, which will cover almost a quarter of the world’s total GDP, will lower tariffs on 99 per cent of Indian exports to the EU. It will also reduce duties on more than 97 per cent of EU exports to India, officials said.
With inputs from agencies
