TRUMP RIVALS EUROPE’S AMERICA-INDIA TRADE DEAL
- Michael Thervil
- 1 hour ago
- 2 min read
Written by Michael Thervil
[America-India Trade Deal] Earlier this week American President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister moved closer than ever to signing a bilateral trade deal that would rival the recent trade deal established between Europe and India. While the Trump Administration and Prime Minister Modi are publicly celebrating the success of the pending deal, there is a large base of detractor in India who have expressed their dissatisfaction with the recent deal that is yet to be signed. Some of the key takeaways from the America-India trade deal consist of America reducing tariffs on Indian products, goods, and services from 50% to 18%, the lowest of any Asian country.
In turn, India will place 0% tariffs on American imports. Then there is the Prime Minister's Modi’s commitment to purchase $500 billion of American imports over the course of five years as it relates to the American based technology, coal, agriculture, energy, precious metals and stones, aircraft and parts to include military aircraft, nuclear materials, iron, steel, and well as organic chemical and chemical products.
Even though many geopolitical analysts and Indian detractors are saying this deal benefits the Americans more than India, there's another imbalance that they are saying shouldn’t be ignored. That imbalance is the fact that export numbers between the two countries from 2024 indicated that while the Americans exported an estimated $41.8 billion to India, India exported roughly $87.4 billion to the Americans. In other words, India bore the brunt of a $45.7 billion trade deficit (and currently still does).
Beyond geopolitical and Indian detractors, Indian farmers have also expressed their anger over the trade deal by stating that it would diminish their sales and returns on their agricultural producers. Sources revealed that Indian farmers who produce cotton, chestnuts, onion, and apples would be hit the hardest. Sources also revealed that Prime Minister Modi stated that India would not import genetically modified food (GMO’s), soybeans, poultry, cereals, and corn from the Americans. It should be noted that Indian farmers have been historically protected by the Indian government.
Included in the American-Indian deal according to the trump administration was Prime Minister Modi's commitment to stop purchasing Russian oil and to start purchasing oil from Venezuela. Russia has not confirmed this to be the case, nor has Prime Minister Modi. This deal comes on the heels of Europe striking a trade deal with India entitled the “India Free Trade Agreement”, a deal that has been hailed as “the mother of all deals” which would have increased the likelihood of America being shut out of international trade. There have been very limited details on the inner workings of the recent America-India trade deal, but specifics are expected to be revealed in coming weeks.