US President Donald Trump’s claim that India has offered to drop all tariffs on goods imported from his country has been swiftly disputed by Delhi.
In a statement to local news agencies India’s foreign minister S Jaishankar countered the claim saying talks are still going on and “nothing is decided till everything is”.
The statement is in stark contrast to comments by Trump to reporters earlier in the day, when he declared Delhi had “offered us a deal where basically they are willing to literally charge us no tariff”.
India and the US are currently in talks to negotiate a trade agreement.
Jaishankar said on Thursday that any trade deal has to be mutually beneficial and work for both countries.
“That would be our expectation from the trade deal. Until that is done, any judgment on it would be premature,” he told news agencies.
Trump made the comments when he was speaking at an event with business leaders in Doha where he announced a series of deals between the US and Qatar, including for Boeing jets.
The US president made the comments while speaking about Apple’s plans to make iPhones in India, saying he had told CEO Tim Cook that he didn’t want him to build in India because it was “one of the highest tariff nations in the world”.
“They [India] have offered us a deal where basically they have agreed to charge us literally no tariffs. I said ‘Tim, we are treating you really good, we put up with all the plants you built in China for years. We are not interested in you building in India. India can take care of themselves’.”
Credit: bbc.com
