U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shake palms, on the White Home in Washington, D.C., U.S., Feb. 13, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
India and the U.S. will work to greater than double bilateral commerce to $500 billion by 2030, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned at a joint press convention with U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday.
Talking on the conclusion of the 2 leaders’ assembly in Washington, Modi additionally mentioned that “Our groups will work on concluding very quickly, a mutually useful commerce settlement.”
Trump acknowledged India’s current transfer to cut back tariffs on choose imports and mentioned he would start talks on disparities on commerce and hoped to achieve an settlement.
Modi mentioned India and the U.S. would additionally work collectively on growing synthetic intelligence and semiconductors whereas specializing in establishing sturdy provide chains for strategic minerals.
The remarks got here hours after Trump signed a presidential memorandum outlining his plan to impose “reciprocal tariffs” on overseas nations, together with India.
The U.S. would merely cost the identical tariff charges that India costs, Trump mentioned, whereas the commerce deficit with India could possibly be addressed with the sale of oil and fuel.
India imposes a 17% simple average tariff on international locations with the most-favored-nation standing, compared with the U.S. that levies 3.3%. The U.S. enjoys MFN standing with most main economies.
U.S. whole items commerce with India is estimated at $129 billion in 2024, in keeping with the Workplace of the U.S. Commerce Consultant. India’s surplus with the U.S., its second-largest trading companion, reached $45.7 billion last year.
The lofty goal of $500 billion in commerce could possibly be achievable, Raghuram Rajan, professor of finance at College of Chicago Sales space Faculty of Enterprise and former Reserve Financial institution of India governor, informed CNBC “Squawk Box Asia.”
India, the world’s biggest defense equipment importer, may supply to shift its imports from Russia towards the U.S. and improve its purchases of liquified pure fuel from American producers, Rajan added.
“We’re, proper now, a reciprocal nation… We’ll have no matter India costs, we’re charging them. No matter one other nation costs, we’re charging them. So it is known as reciprocal, which I feel is a particularly reasonable approach,” the U.S. president mentioned on the press briefing.
The president mentioned that the reciprocal tariffs won’t take impact instantly as his administration works on figuring out the suitable tariff ranges for every affected nation.
Trump has already slapped tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico in addition to world tariffs on imports of metal and aluminum. Trump’s tariffs on Canada and Mexico are at present on pause after each international locations pledged to crack down on unlawful drug trafficking at their respective borders with the U.S.
Regardless of the encouraging tones from the Wednesday summit, indicators of friction stay within the U.S.-India relation, mentioned Daniel Balazs, a analysis fellow on the S. Rajaratnam Faculty of Worldwide Research, such because the unlawful immigration situation and India’s shut ties with Russia. “The latter, specifically, is unlikely to go away anytime quickly and can most likely stay a sore level between the 2 sides,” he mentioned.
