PNN – US Vice President JD Vance began a four-day trade trip to India on Monday as New Delhi continues to face the threat of 26% tariffs on its exports to the United States.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network, citing the website of the French newspaper Le Figaro, while the implementation of US trade tariffs has been suspended for 90 days from April 9, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hopes to reach a trade agreement with Washington.
According to the report, some countries, including India, Asia’s third-largest economy, and plan to use the deadline as an opportunity to conclude an agreement, and Washington and New Delhi are currently negotiating the first part of such a trade agreement.
In this regard, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal expressed optimism last week about the results of the US Vice President’s visit to New Delhi, announcing that Vance and Modi are expected to review the development of bilateral relations and exchange views on regional and global developments of mutual interest.
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In this report, the newspaper Le Figaro cautiously assessed New Delhi’s response to the US tariffs and recalled that after Washington announced the new tariffs, the Indian Ministry of Commerce announced a detailed review of the consequences of these measures and emphasized that it was looking for opportunities that may arise.
The report adds that US President Donald Trump described Modi as a “very good friend” when the Indian Prime Minister visited the White House in February, but still felt that the Indian leader had not “treated” the United States well.
Modi said during his visit to Washington that the two countries would work together on a “mutually beneficial trade agreement,” adding: The United States is a vital market for India’s services and information technology (IT) sector, which in turn is a major buyer of US military hardware.
It is worth recalling that India and the United States agreed in February to continue negotiations until the fall of 2025 to reach an initial agreement, and previously, Reuters reported that India was prepared to reduce tariffs on $23 billion in imports from the United States.
According to the report, the Indian government has also put measures on the agenda, such as reducing tariffs on luxury cars and eliminating the digital services tax, to please Washington.
However, Trump’s new tariffs could cut India’s economic growth by 20 to 40 basis points, seriously jeopardizing the country’s diamond industry, which exports a third of its goods to the United States, and putting thousands of jobs at risk.