India willing to cut tariffs substantially, talks ongoing, will know by end of week: Trump

NEW DELHI: US President Donald Trump Wednesday said that America is in talks with India for a trade deal and the latter is willing to cut tariffs “very substantially”.

His statement came hours after he announced 25% tariffs on India along with an unspecified additional penalty, to punish the New Delhi for making energy purchases from Russia.

“We are negotiating right now and it's also BRICS. BRICS, which is basically a group of countries that are anti the United States and India is a member of that...It is an attack on the dollar and we are not going to let anybody attack the dollar. So it's partially BRICS and it's partially trade...We had a tremendous deficit,” Trump said at a press conference.


BRICS includes Brazil, China, Russia, India and South Africa. Other members are Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia.

“Prime Minister Modi is a friend of mine, but they don't do very much business in terms of business with us. They sell a lot to us, but we don't buy from them...Because the tariff is so high. They have one of the highest tariffs in the world. Now, they are willing to cut it very substantially. But we will see what happens,” Trump said.

Trump had earlier threatened an additional 10% tariff on countries that “align themselves with the anti-American policies of BRICS”.

“We are talking to India now. We will see what happens. It doesn't matter too much whether we have a deal or we charge them a certain tariff. But you will know at the end of this week…,” he added.