Washington DC [US], July 16 : US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the United States is close to securing full trade access into India. He also announced a new trade deal with Indonesia, after which the latter will face a reduced tariff rate of 19 per cent.
Announcing progress on the India part, Trump stated, "We're going to have access into India. And you have to understand, we had no access into any of these countries. Our people couldn't go in. And now we're getting access because of what we're doing with the tariffs."
Trump said that the United States has reached a trade agreement with Indonesia after speaking with the country's President Joko Widodo, also known as Prabowo Subianto, as per CNN.
Hours after announcing the agreement on Truth Social, Trump told reporters that it calls for Indonesia not to charge any tariffs on American exports, while the US will impose a 19 per cent tariff on Indonesian exports.
"So we made a deal with Indonesia. I spoke to their really great president, very popular, very strong, and smart. And we made the deal. We have full access to Indonesia... As you know, Indonesia is very strong in copper. But we have full access to everything. We will pay no tariffs," he said.
"So they are giving us access into Indonesia, which we never had. That's probably the biggest part of the deal. And the other part is that they are going to pay 19 per cent, and we are going to pay nothing. I think it's a good deal for both parties. But we will have full access into Indonesia. And we have a couple of those deals that are going to be announced," the US President added.
Further, Trump emphasised that "Indonesia has some great products, and they also have some very valuable earths and various other materials, and they're known for is very high-quality copper, which the US will be using."
In a subsequent post on Truth Social, he said the agreement was "finalised." However, the Indonesian government had yet to make any similar announcements on its end, as of Tuesday afternoon.
According to CNN, Indonesia shipped USD 20 million worth of copper to the US last year, according to US Commerce Department data, that's far behind top suppliers Chile and Canada, which sent USD 6 billion and USD 4 billion worth of the metal to the US last year.
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