US wants a grand trade deal with India, no sector is off the table, says US Embassy spokesperson

Days after India and the US formally started negotiations on a bilateral trade agreement, a US Embassy spokesperson said President Donald Trump’s “Fair and Reciprocal Plan” is aimed at correcting long-standing imbalances in international trade and bringing back fairness to America’s trade relationships.

“The United States is one of the most open economies in the world, yet our trading partners maintain barriers to our exports. This lack of reciprocity is unfair, contributes to the United States’ large and persistent trade deficit, and threatens our economic and national security,” said the spokesperson.

According to reports, the US has sought zero duties on all products traded with India, excluding agriculture. News agency Reuters reported that the US has sought zero duties on Tesla cars exported to India. However, the US Embassy spokesperson said no sector was off the table.

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“As Commerce Secretary Lutnick said, the United States seeks a grand trade deal between India and the United States, and the United States seeks to bring down the tariff levels that India has. Secretary Lutnick noted that no sector should be off the table”, he said.

Speaking at the India Today Conclave, US Secretary for Commerce Howard Lutnick had said that the US was interested in a macro-level, broad-based trade deal with India taking everything into account. “India needs to step out and look at the reciprocal relationship with the US. India cannot be worried about every country. We would like India to bring down tariffs bilaterally and trade with America in the most special and unique way,” he said.

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Reacting to Lutnick’s remarks, Former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal said a broad-based deal rather than a product-specific deal would be a big mistake. “They are making a big mistake, and we have to persuade them why they are making this mistake. We can have a bilateral agreement with them, and this is allowed under the WTO. This will then exclude MFN treatment, because if we don’t do a product-based bilateral negotiation with the United States, and go ahead with an across-the-board deal, then basically it’s not United States that’s going to benefit most from it, it will be China. Surely the United States doesn’t want that. Therefore, the whole approach is wrong, and it is to get their way, one way or the other,” he said.

During Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Washington in February, President Trump and PM Modi set a bold new goal for bilateral trade, Mission 500, aiming to more than double total bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030. The leaders further announced plans to negotiate the first tranche of a mutually beneficial, multi-sector Bilateral Trade Agreement by the fall of 2025.