India may sign ‘very big’ trade deal with US, says Donald Trump

United States President Donald Trump on Friday said that India could sign a “very big” trade deal with Washington soon.

The statement comes days before the 90-day suspension of tariffs announced by Trump is set to end on July 9.

“Everybody wants to make a deal and have a part of it,” the US president said during an event at the White House. “We just signed with China yesterday. We are having some great deals. We have one coming up, maybe with India. Very big one. Where we are going to open up India.”

On Tuesday, the US and China agreed on a framework to de-escalate trade tensions and remove restrictions on exports of rare earth minerals imposed by Beijing on the North American country.

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the agreement would remove restrictions on Chinese exports of rare earth minerals and magnets, and some of the recent US export restrictions “in a balanced way”.

Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs imposed on several countries, including a 26% “discounted” levy on India, took effect on April 9. Hours later, however, Trump had reduced the rates on imports from most countries to 10% for 90 days to provide time for trade negotiations.

The US president had repeatedly said he intended to impose a reciprocal tax on India, among others, citing high tariffs the...

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