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‘Any trade deal has to be mutually beneficial’: Jaishankar on talks with US

Cautioning against premature judgments, the minister of external affairs said no decision has been taken yet.

‘Any trade deal has to be mutually beneficial’: Jaishankar on talks with US

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar (File photo: ANI)

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Thursday that discussions on trade between India and the United States are ongoing, with negotiations still underway.

Talking to mediapersons here, he stressed that any trade deal must be mutually beneficial and work for both countries. “On the trade remarks. Let me say this that look between India and US trade talks have been going on, negotiations have been going on. In fact, we have, I think our team is just going at this point. These are very complicated negotiations. They are very intricate, intricate,” he said.

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Cautioning against premature judgments, the minister of external affairs said no decision has been taken yet. “Nothing is decided, you know. But any trade deal, any trade deal has to be mutually beneficial. Any trade deal has to work for both the countries, and I think that would be our expectation from the trade deal and until that is done, I think any judgement on it would be premature,” he said.

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Earlier in the day, US President Donald Trump claimed that India had offered the US a nearly no-tariff deal on a reciprocal basis.”They have offered us a deal where basically they’re willing to literally charge us no tariff,” he said while addressing a news conference in Doha.

Trump also addressed Apple CEO Tim Cook’s manufacturing plans, urging him to increase production in the US instead of India.”I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday. I said to him, my friend, I am treating you very well. You are coming up with $500 billion, but now I hear you are building all over India. I don’t want you building in India. You can build in India, if you want to take care of India because India is one of the highest tariff nations in the world, so it is very hard to sell in India,” he said.

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