Trump Teases Major Trade Agreement in the Works with India
Donald Trump’s comments coincide with the arrival of an Indian delegation in Washington for the upcoming round of trade negotiations with the United States.
In an indication of major advancements in the negotiations of a long-awaited bilateral trade agreement between the two nations, U.S. President Donald Trump declared that America would have a “very big” trade deal with India.
“We have some fantastic bargains. At a White House event on Thursday, June 26, 2025, to encourage the passage of the GOP’s tax and spending cuts plan, Mr. Trump stated, “We have one coming up, maybe with India, a very big one, where we’re going to open up India.”
We are in the process of opening up China through the China deal. Mr. Trump stated, “The relationship with every country has been very good, and things that really couldn’t have happened.”
But the president didn’t go into specifics about the agreement he reached with China.
He claimed that officials in his administration were putting in extra hours to negotiate with nations since every nation wanted to participate and achieve a deal.
“Do you really have anybody of any interest?” the media asked a few months ago, as you recall. We signed with China yesterday, isn’t that correct? We recently negotiated a deal with China. Everyone is here. We will not negotiate with all of them. For some, we will just write them a letter expressing our sincere gratitude. You will pay 25%, 35%, and 45%. My folks don’t want to do it that way, and that’s the simplest way to do it. They want to make more deals than I would, but they want to do some of it,” he remarked.
An Indian team is in Washington for negotiations.
Mr. Trump’s comments coincide with the arrival of an Indian delegation in Washington on Thursday, June 26, 2025, led by top negotiator Rajesh Agarwal, for the upcoming round of trade negotiations with the United States.
Mr. Agrawal is the Department of Commerce’s special secretary.
Negotiations for an interim trade agreement are underway between the United States and India, with the goal of reaching a deal by July 9.
The Trump administration halted the high tariffs proposed by the United States on April 2 until July 9.
Demands for duty concessions
India finds it difficult and challenging to grant duty concessions to the United States in the dairy and agriculture industries. To dateThe United States seeks tariff exemptions on a number of industrial commodities, cars, particularly electric ones, wines, dairy products, petrochemicals, and agricultural products, including genetically modified crops, apples, and tree nuts.
In the proposed trade agreement, India is requesting tax exemptions for labour-intensive industries like textiles, jewellery and gems, leather goods, clothing, plastics, chemicals, prawns, oil seeds, grapes and bananas.
“Optimistic”
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick stated earlier this month that he is “very optimistic” about a trade agreement between the United States and India, saying that one should anticipate one in the “not too distant future.”India has not included dairy in any of its free trade agreements.
The notion is that we’ve managed to be in a very, very good spot when they put the right person on the other side of the table and India puts the right person on the other side. In his keynote speech at the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) Leadership Summit, Mr. Lutnick stated, “And you should expect a deal between the United States and India in the not-too-distant future because I think we found a place that really works for both countries.”
By autumn (September–October) of this year, the two nations want to have the first tranche of the planned bilateral trade agreement (BTA) finalised. By 2030, the agreement aims to more than double bilateral trade from the present $191 billion to $500 billion.
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