United States President Donald Trump has said that New Delhi and Washington are "pretty close" to finalising a trade deal, even as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in India on a three-day official visit.
"They want to make a deal. We're going to make a deal. Pretty close, yeah," Bloomberg cited Trump as saying yesterday (20 October), while speaking to reporters at the White House. The US President further said it "could be a much different kind of deal", but did not elaborate further.
Trump's remarks follow optimistic statements made by both Indian and US leaders in the recent past regarding the prospects of the trade deal. New Delhi and Washington had announced the framework for an interim trade agreement in February earlier this year.
'Very close, some items left': Rubio on trade deal
Rubio too had, on Tuesday, said that India and the US are close to finalising a trade agreement. "The State Department doesn't negotiate trade agreements, but we are very much involved in what's happening. We're very, very close. I would say we're about as close as you can be without having executed the agreement," he said during his second official visit to India.
He said there are a "small number of items left to wrap up", adding that these too would be dealt with "shortly". Rubio expressed hope that there would be "good news to announce soon", while saying he was optimistic that both sides would have "something in place".
Rubio met external affairs minister S Jaishankar in Mumbai yesterday, during which he urged New Delhi to increase energy trade and step up purchases of American technologies and systems.
US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor also said, last week at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in New Delhi, that "the big items are done", and that the two countries are very close to "landing it."
Rubio suggests trade deal 'considered' ahead of Russian energy waivers
Ahead of his India visit as well, Rubio had in Uzbekistan said that Washington was "very close" to finalising a trade deal with India, adding that it was taken into consideration when making decisions on national security waivers.
"We're trying to finalise a trade deal with India right now. We're very close to doing that. So that's one of the things we take into consideration when the President makes a decision about national security waivers and things of that nature," Rubio said while speaking to reporters in Samarkand.
The remarks came days after US President Donald Trump waived some sanctions related to Russian energy under the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, citing "national security" reasons. The law, which has been put on hold, would have imposed tariffs of up to 100% on the top five purchasers of Russian crude oil or gas, which included India. To be sure, the secondary sanctions have just been deferred, leaving Trump free to use the law against these countries whenever he chooses.
Union minister Piyush Goyal says first tranche of trade deal finalised
Union minister Piyush Goyal had, last week, said the first tranche of India-US bilateral trade agreement is ready and legal drafting is currently in process.
"The US bilateral trade agreement's first tranche has been finalised. It's going through the final contours, the legal drafting, and we hope to be able to finalise that soon and operationalise it once we get a comparable or competitive advantage over our peer countries," he said.