India-US trade deal: ‘Close to making a deal with India,’ says Donald Trump; US President releases tariff letters for countries

NEW DELHI: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that the States was “close to making a deal with India” after he announced new tariffs for 14 nations, including Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, South Korea, and Japan, set to take effect on August 1.“We’ve spoken to everybody. …it’s all done. I told you we’ll make some deals, but for the most part, we’re going to send a letter. We’re going to say, welcome to the United States if you’d like to participate in the greatest, most successful country ever. I mean we are doing better than ever… We’ve never had numbers like this. We’ve never had investment like this. We have more than 90… have much more than 90. But most of those are going to be sent to letter. This is exactly what I said. Now we’ve made a deal with United Kingdom. We’ve made a deal with China. We’re close to making a deal with India,” he said.“Others we met with, and we don’t think we’re going to be able to make a deal, so we just send them a letter. We’re sending out letters to various countries telling them how much tariffs they have to pay. Some will maybe adjust a little bit depending if they have a cause, we’re not going to be unfair about it,” he added.Talking about his August 1 deadline, Trump said, “I would say firm but not a 100 per cent firm. If they call up and they say we would like to do something in a different way, we will be open to that.”Trump announced new 25% tariffs on Japan and South Korea via Truth Social, followed by similar tariff letters to several other countries including Bangladesh, Indonesia, and South Africa. He warned that if trade deals aren’t finalized soon, US import duties will return to the higher rates set in April.Indian officials had been in Washington last month, involved in hectic negotiations with US representatives to finalise the trade deal.Donald Trump had announced a 26 per cent retaliatory tariff on Indian goods in April 2025, but later reduced it to 10 per cent basic duty, for a 90-day suspension period that started from April 10.