US President Donald Trump said India proposed to remove tariffs on American goods, as the Indian nation is negotiating an agreement to prevent higher import duties.
Speaking on May 15 at a gathering of business leaders in Qatar, Mr. Trump revealed that the Indian government has “offered us a deal where essentially they are willing to charge us no tariff.”.
Mr. Trump didn’t provide further details of New Delhi’s apparent offer, and the Indian government didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
India was one of the first countries to begin trade negotiations with the US following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the White House in February.
India’s trade minister will meet with Mr. Trump administration officials in the US from May 17 to May 20 for further talks.
Mr. Trump said this last week after India threatened to impose retaliatory tariffs against the US following higher US tariffs on steel and aluminum, a sign that New Delhi is adopting a more aggressive approach in its negotiations with the White House.
The negotiations for trade are still going along as scheduled, however, individuals close to the situation have signaled.
Some analysts in New Delhi speculated that Mr. Trump’s remarks may mean India is close to finalizing a deal, or on the other hand, that the comments are a White House bid at negotiating.
“A trade pact between India and US might be on the cards,” said Mr. Ajay Srivastava, founder, New Delhi-based think tank Global Trade Research Institute. “But the pact must ensure reciprocal tariff elimination equally by both countries.”
Market reaction was relatively muted after Mr. Trump’s announcement with the rupee making partial recovery of losses.
Zero tariffs
Since coming back to the White House, Mr. Trump has been putting pressure on the Indian government to tackle the trade deficit between their two nations, which stood at around US$47 billion (S$61 billion) in 2024.
Having complained long and hard about India’s tariffs being too steep and hurting US businesses, Mr. Trump vowed to impose “reciprocal” tariffs of 26 percent on India. Those tariffs temporarily lapsed in early July.
India made some gestures to placate Mr Trump’s grievances in 2025, including overhauling its tariff system to reduce tariffs on some of America’s most-favored goods like bourbon whiskey and high-end motorcycles manufactured by Harley-Davidson Inc.
As part of its negotiations on trade, New Delhi has also provided zero tariffs on some products like auto components and pharmaceuticals on a tit-for-tat basis up to a quantum of imports, Bloomberg News said in early May.
Even though Mr Modi and Mr Trump have a very close personal relationship, there has been growing annoyance in New Delhi in recent days with the US president’s assertion that he used trade as a lever to bargain for a ceasefire between India and Pakistan after four days of military combat. Indian officials have disputed that.
The US president on May 15 also said that he called Apple Inc chief executive officer Tim Cook to discourage him from expanding production in India.
“I told him I don’t want you building in India,” Mr. Trump said of a conversation he said he had with Mr. Cook.
He went on to say he told Mr. Cook “India can take care of themselves, they are doing very well.”
After the encounter, Mr. Trump stated that Apple is going to “increase their production in the United States.”
