INDIA and the US agreed on a trade deal under which Washington will bring down reciprocal tariff on Indian goods to 18 per cent from current 25 per cent, US President Donald Trump said on Monday after a phone conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Prime Minister said he was delighted that “made in India products will now have a reduced tariff of 18 per cent”. Trump claimed India will move forward to reduce its “tariffs and non tariff barriers” against the US to zero. “Out of friendship and respect for Prime Minister Modi and, as per his request, effective immediately, we agreed to a trade deal between the United States and India, whereby the United States will charge a reduced reciprocal tariff, lowering it from 25 per cent to 18 per cent,” the US President said on social media. India will “likewise move forward to reduce their tariffs and non tariff barriers against the United States, to zero”. Trump said Modi also committed to “buy American” at a much higher level, in addition to over USD 500 billion dollars of US energy, technology, agricultural, coal, and many other products.

 

“Our amazing relationship with India will be even stronger going forward. Prime Minister Modi and I are two people that get things done something that cannot be said for most,” he said. Trump said Modi and he also discussed ending the war between Russia and Ukraine. “He agreed to stop buying Russian Oil, and to buy much more from the United States and, potentially, Venezuela,” the US President said. “This will help END THE WAR in Ukraine, which is taking place right now, with thousands of people dying each and every week,” Trump said. India-US relationship has limitless potential: US Ambassador Gor: US AMBASSADOR to India, Sergio Gor, on Monday hailed the partnership between Washington and New Delhi, asserting that the relationship between the United States and India has “limitless potential”.

 

Gor made the comment shortly after the US President Donald Trump spoke with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a day before External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar begins a visit to the United States of America. “As I have said many times, President Trump genuinely considers Prime Minister Modi a great friend! Thrilled by the news of the trade deal this evening. The relationship between the United States and India has LIMITLESS POTENTIAL!,” he posted on X after the phone call between both leaders. It was Gor who had first announced that Trump and PM Modi had spoken over the phone earlier in the evening. “President Trump just spoke with Prime Minister Modi,” Gor said in a social media post. “STAY TUNED,” he added, without giving further details. Later, the US President said that India and the United States had reached a trade deal.