India has dropped tariffs on US imports to 'nothing', says Trump amid trade deal talks with New Delhi

Amid the ongoing negotiations with New Delhi for a bilateral trade deal, US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said India has dropped its tariffs on imports from the United States to "nothing".

"India has one of the highest tariffs in the world. We are not going to put up with that, they have agreed already to drop it, drop it to nothing. They have already agreed. They wouldn't have done for anybody else, but me," he said in a White House media interaction alongside Canada’s Mark Carney.

The US and India have been negotiating a trade deal that Trump administration officials have said could be one of the first to be announced, among the slew of deals under discussion between the US and its other trade partners.

The bilateral trade agreement (BTA), proposed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with Trump in Washington in February, seeks to more than double trade to $500 billion by 2030 from over $190 billion at present.

Both sides are attempting to cover as much ground as possible to reach some kind of an interim trade agreement or understanding with the US before the 90-day pause on the 26 per cent reciprocal tariffs expires in early July.

The remarks by Trump came on a day when India and the UK sealed a landmark free trade agreement that will lower tariffs on 99 per cent Indian exports and will make it easier for British firms to export whisky, cars and other products to India besides boosting overall trade basket. Along with the FTA -- the biggest the UK has done since leaving the European Union -- the two sides also sealed a double contribution convention.