New Delhi, Mar 21 (UNI) India said today that it is “actively working” with the US to build a framework for the Bilateral Trade Agreement, amid the backdrop of US President Donald Trump again accusing New Delhi of high tariffs on US goods and threatening reciprocal tariffs from April 2.

The Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, in his media briefing, said:

“India and the US are in the process of taking forward the Bilateral Trade negotiations.

“The two governments are actively working to build a framework for the BTA, which would aim to expand trade, enhance market access, reduce tariff and non tariff barriers and deepen supply chain integration.

“In this endeavour, our Commerce and Industry Minister (Piyush Goyal) had visited the US from March 3-7 where he met with the US Commerce Secretary as also the US Trade Representative.

“The government of India remains engaged with the US administration at various levels to arrive at a mutually beneficial multi-sector bilateral trade agreement,” he said.

In an interview to Breitbart News, President Trump said that while he has a “very good relationship” with India, New Delhi is “one of the highest tariffing nations of the world” and that he is going ahead with his reciprocal tariffs on India from April 2.

Asked about his February 13 bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the White House, President Trump said:

“I have a very good relationship with India, but the only problem I have with India is they’re one of the highest tariffing nations in the world.”

“I believe they’re going to probably going to be lowering those tariffs substantially, but on April 2, we will be charging them the same tariffs they charge us.”

Earlier this month, in an address to the US Congress President Trump had said that “India charges US auto tariffs higher than 100 percent”, which he termed as “not fair”.

President Trump, who had raised the issue of high Indian tariffs during his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the White House last month, clubbed India along with China, and the European Union as among countries that charge “tremendously higher tariffs” on US products.

Trump said:

“Other countries have used tariffs against us for decades, and now it's our turn to start using them against those other countries. On average, the European Union, China, Brazil, India, Mexico and Canada, have you heard of them? And countless other nations charge us tremendously higher tariffs than we charge them.

“It's very unfair. India charges US auto tariffs higher than 100%.”

UNI RN