Washington, DC [US], February 14 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump have have agreed to start discussing trade and tariff-related issues, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said.
Addressing a press briefing after a meeting between PM Modi and Trump in the White House, the Foregin Secretary said, "We have indicated, and the two leaders have agreed today to start discussing trade and tariff-related issues."
"So, I will let those discussions start before pronouncing on what may happen with regard to the plans that have been announced today by the U.S. administration," he said.
Ahead of his meeting with PM Modi, Trump announced reciprocal tarriffs on countries, including India.
"On trade, I have decided that for the purpose of fairness, I'll charge reciprocal tariffs - meaning, whatever countries charge the United States of America, we will charge them - no more, no less. They charge us with tax and tariffs, it's very simple we will charge them with exact tax and tariffs," Trump said.
He signed the memo "Fair and Reciprocal Plan" and told reporters in the Oval office "They charge us a tax or tariff and we charge them the exact same,"
Regarding India, Trump noted that discussions during his first term failed to yield concessions on tariff reductions. As a result, the US has decided to adopt a direct reciprocal approach.
"And so we are being reciprocal with India. Whatever India charges, we charge them. So, frankly, it no longer matters to us that much, what they charge. I had discussions with India in the first term about the fact that their tariffs were very high, and I was unable to get a concession," he said
In his media briefing Foreign Secretary Misri said, "We've been hearing about tariffs for quite some time and in today's discussion between the two sides, this issue came up quite normally in the talks between the two leaders."
"They both had their perspectives, but what's more remarkable is or what's worth looking at is the fact that we have a way forward on this issue in terms of the undertaking to discuss or start discussions on a bilateral trading agreement, and this may actually be a very good opportunity to Take forward something and conclude something which was actually foreseen in the first Trump administration" Misri said.
The foreign secretary Misri in his briefing mentioning India's trade in energy-related trade, he said last year India purchased about USD 15 billion in US energy output and there is a good chance that this figure will go up to as much as USD 25 billion in the near future.
India's Foreign Secretary said, "So therefore we are a significant producer and today's discussions did focus considerably on the possibility of more energy purchases, and it is entirely possible that these increased energy purchases will contribute to impacting the deficit between the two countries as well."
The MEA official said that PM Modi and President Trump had also announced plans to negotiate the first tranche of a mutually beneficial multi-sector bilateral trade agreement by the fall of 2025 towards advancing this process.
"This issue did figure in some detail in the discussions as well. Both countries will take an integrated approach to strengthen bilateral trade across the goods and services sector. This will include themes such as increasing market access, reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers and deepening supply chain integration between the two countries.," Misri said.
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