Modi, Trump Vague on GSP Restoration During Press Event in India
At a press event during President Donald Trump's visit to India, both he and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were vague on how trade tensions might be eased between the two countries. A senior administration official said before the trip that India's announcement of higher tariffs precluded a mini-deal that would have restored India to the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program (see 2002210041). Trump said he'd been talking with Modi about how to forge an economic relationship “that is fair and reciprocal. Our teams have made tremendous progress on a comprehensive trade agreement and I’m optimistic we can reach a deal that will be of great importance to both countries.” He said U.S. exports to India are up nearly 60 percent since he took office.
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Modi said: “As far as bilateral trade is concerned, our commerce ministers have had very positive discussions. President Trump and I, we have both agreed that the understanding reached by our commerce ministers will take it forward to give it a legal shape. We have also agreed to initiate negotiations for a bigger deal. We are confident that this will yield good results that will be in our mutual interest.”
At a later press conference, when a journalist asked a follow-up question about trade, Trump said, “We also talked about tariffs, because as you know, India is probably the highest-tariff nation in the world, meaning charging tariffs to outsiders. And I said, we have to stop that. We have to stop it, at least as it pertains to the United States. And I think we're understanding each other.
“With China, we worked a deal and we worked it because of the tariffs. And I was able to leave the tariffs on. That will take care of phase two. We still have 25 percent on $250 billion.
“But in the meantime, we're working with China very much on the virus,” he said, and expressed confidence countries where the virus is spreading will solve the problem.