India disputes Trump claim it is ready to charge US 'no tariffs'

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - LONDON — US President Donald Trump's claim that India has offered to drop all tariffs on goods imported from his country has been swiftly disputed by Delhi.

In a statement to local news agencies India's foreign minister S Jaishankar countered the claim saying talks are still going on and "nothing is decided till everything is".

The statement is in stark contrast to comments by Trump to reporters earlier in the day, when he declared Delhi had "offered us a deal where basically they are willing to literally charge us no tariff".

India and the US are currently in talks to negotiate a trade agreement.

Jaishankar said on Thursday that any trade deal has to be mutually beneficial and work for both countries.

"That would be our expectation from the trade deal. Until that is done, any judgment on it would be premature," he told news agencies.

Trump made the comments when he was speaking at an event with business leaders in Doha where he announced a series of deals between the US and Qatar, including for Boeing jets.

The US president made the comments while speaking about Apple's plans to make iPhones in India, saying he had told CEO Tim Cook that he didn't want him to build in India because it was "one of the highest tariff nations in the world".

"They [India] have offered us a deal where basically they have agreed to charge us literally no tariffs. I said 'Tim, we are treating you really 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'."

In an earnings call earlier this month, Apple had said it was shifting production of most iPhones from China to India while Vietnam would be a major production hub for items such as iPads and Apple watches.

President Trump slapped tariffs of up to 27% on Indian goods in April. Delhi is rushing to negotiate a trade deal during Trump's 90-day pause on higher tariffs, which ends on 9 July.

Just this week, the US and China agreed to lower import taxes on goods being traded between the two countries - US tariffs on Chinese imports will fall to 30% from 145%, while Chinese tariffs on some US imports will fall to 10% from125%.

The US was until recently India's biggest trading partner, with bilateral trade amounting to $190bn (£143bn).

Delhi has already lowered tariffs on Bourbon whiskey, motorcycles and some other US products, but the US has a $45bn trade deficit with India, which Trump wants to reduce.

"As Trump always blamed India's high tariffs for the trade deficit, India could offer to make 90% of US exports tariff-free from day one, using a "zero-for-zero" approach - cutting tariffs on all goods except autos and agriculture. But the deal must ensure strict reciprocity, with both sides eliminating tariffs equally," says Ajay Srivastava, a Delhi-based trade expert.

Trump and Modi have set a target to more than double trade to $500bn, but Delhi is unlikely to offer concessions in sectors such as agriculture where there are deeper political sensitivities involved.

India has recently shown more openness to doing trade deals after years of scepticism.

Last week, it inked a trade pact with the UK that will substantially slash duties in many protected sectors like whisky and automobiles.

India also signed a $100bn free trade agreement with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) last year - a group of four European countries that are not members of the European Union - after almost 16 years of negotiations.

EU and India are also pushing to get a free trade agreement done this year. — BBC