Vance in India for Trade Talks with Modi as Higher Tariffs Loom
Indian daily THE HINDU: Vance wants “India to give greater access to its markets, buy more American energy and defence hardware.”
Vice President JD Vance met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, as both countries work on a wide-ranging trade agreement expected to lower New Delhi’s trade deficit and provide a level playing field for American companies.
“The U.S. is India’s largest trading partner and the two countries are now holding negotiations aiming to seal a bilateral trade agreement this year. They have set an ambitious target of more than doubling their bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030,” The Associated Press noted Tuesday. “If achieved, the trade deal could significantly enhance economic ties between the two countries and potentially strengthen diplomatic ties as well.”
If negotiations fail, India could face higher tariffs when President Trump’s three-month pause expires in mid-July. “Without an agreement, India faces the threat of a 26 per cent ‘reciprocal’ tariff on its exports to the US. Trump has paused the measure for 90 days so negotiations can take place,” the UK-based Financial Times noted.
New Delhi appears to be taking President Trump’s tariff ultimatum seriously, offering to open up key sectors of the economy for U.S companies. “Modi’s government is moving quickly to negotiate the deal, which will cover products ranging from food to ecommerce and cars,” the British newspaper added.
The Trump tariff hike isn’t all bad news for India. The country hopes to gain at China’s expense. “Apple and Samsung are shifting their production to India to counter higher US tariffs on imports from China and Vietnam,” The Times of India newspaper wrote April 7.
Vance wants India to wean off Russian energy, military hardware
With India heavily dependent on Russian energy and military supplies, Vice President Vance wants the country to source its requirements from the U.S. — a viable way of reducing its huge trade deficit. The vice president “on Tuesday … called on India to give greater access to its markets, buy more American energy and defence hardware as he outlined the vision for stronger ties between the two countries,” the Indian newspaper Hindu reported.
Russia remains India’s biggest arms supplier. With Moscow facing U.S. and Western sanctions in the wake of the Ukraine war, India has emerged as the second largest purchaser of Russian energy after China, importing €49 billion (estimated $56 billion) worth of oil and gas from the sanctions-hit country in the first nine months of 2024.
🚨 JUST IN: VP JD Vance says the U.S. and India have "officially finalized the terms of reference for the trade negotiation."
DEAL INCOMING.
"This is a vital step toward realizing President Trump and PM Modi's vision. It sets a roadmap toward a final deal." pic.twitter.com/6GAOyArldL
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 22, 2025
Prime Minister Modi’s office in a statement talked of “significant progress in the negotiations for a mutually beneficial India-U.S. Bilateral Trade Agreement.“
India, America’s tenth-largest trading partner, has run up trade deficits for decades. “U.S. total goods trade with India is estimated at $129 billion in 2024, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. India’s surplus with the United States, reached $45.7 billion last year,” CNBC observed recently.
Ahead of Vance’s visit, U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer slammed India for “a serious lack of reciprocity in the trade relationship.”
U.S., India agree to “roadmap” for a bilateral trade deal
Following Vance’s meeting with Modi, the two countries agreed to a “roadmap” for a bilateral trade deal set to be finalized this year, the weekly magazine India Today reported:
United States Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday announced that America and India have finalised the terms of reference for the trade negotiations. “I believe this is a vital step toward realising President Trump’s and Prime Minister Modi’s vision, because it sets a roadmap towards a final deal between our nations,” he said. (…)
US Vice President JD Vance, during his visit to Jaipur, said that the Trump administration treated its trade partners on the basis of fairness and shared national interests. “Our administration seeks trade partners on the basis of fairness and shared national interests. We want to partner with people in countries who recognise the historic nature of the moment,” Vance said.
It was an honor to see Prime Minister Modi this evening. He’s a great leader and he was incredibly kind to my family.
I look forward to working under President Trump’s leadership to strengthen our friendship and cooperation with the people of India! https://t.co/pCWmxcFjw8
— JD Vance (@JDVance) April 21, 2025
Trump wants to India to open up its growing online retail sector
Under the news trade agreement, President Trump wants India to open up its growing online retail sector to U.S. players, a move resisted by successive Indian governments. “Trump administration intends to press India to give [U.S.] online retailers … full access to its $125bn ecommerce market as part of the planned trade deal,” the Reuters said Tuesday.
“The U.S. plans to push Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for a level playing field on e-commerce in wide-ranging talks on a U.S.-India trade agreement set to also cover sectors from food to cars,” the news agency added.
When it comes to trade, the Trump administration is employing both carrots and sticks, willing to reward countries like India if they remove trade barriers and lower deficits. According to the Financial Times, both countries “want to boost bilateral trade of goods and services to $500bn, more than double the current amount, by 2030.”
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Comments
This is a golden opportunity to stop dedollarization which is happening rapidly as the American economy falls.
Anyone who thinks Gen Z longs for sweatshops high prices and a worthless dollar is a great candidate for a mental asylum.
Getting to a balanced budget and beginning to pay off the $37 Trillion National debt, growing at a rate of about $1 Trillion every 100 days, would be a good start to restoring confidence in the strength of the US currency.
For now there’s no real other option than the US Dollar. The Euro won’t work as a replacement b/c they don’t have the wherewithal to do it. Nor would Germany want to deal with a weaker Euro which is the consequence of printing enough Euros to become an alternative reserve currency; simple supply and demand if on Monday we have $100 in circulation but print $10 more overnight then on Tuesday the value of the original $100 declined by 10%. b/c now it takes more of them to equal the original purchasing power. That’s inflation in a nutshell, a purely monetary phenomenon. The rises in price follow that in tease in currency supply.
Again for now there’s no option. Though it is very fair to point out that more than a few Nations are using some of their accumulated US.Dollar reserves to buy Gold and other PM. The BRICS could be a threat with an alternative payment system than SWIFT but they all gotta agree on a great many variables then work together to keep to the agreement. OPEC+ usually can’t get adherence to their agreements on production increases/decreases so I’d say the odds are not.good. What is clear is that the neocon globalist decision to seize Russian assets has definitely created anxiety among Nations and serves as the impetus motivating the search for an alternative to the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
We both know the only way to balance the budget is to change social security (i.e. make the age for it older). Americans on both sides oppose that making the only option grow out the deficit. I hope it works, I think we both wanted a different option from the Republican Primary but we both know the “balanced budget” is rhetoric not realistic policy. This is coming from someone who argued in favor of DeSantis’ idea of raising the age of social security. There is a chance that there is more support for raising the age in the Republican Party than the primaries imply but Trump himself thought that the way to secure the primary was to bring up the idea of raising the age and attack DeSantis for that (if you can come up with a different issue they actually disagreed on I am all ears).
Right now there is a crossroads and a quest for autarky would by definition see the world looking for alternative currencies.
The Euro could easily take that place.
“Nor would Germany want to deal with a weaker Euro which is the consequence of printing enough Euros to become an alternative reserve currency”
Germany saw a surprise radical shift and pivot to Russia and China under Angela Merkel despite the pro-American bent of the entire country at the time, Germany saw a shocking anti-nuclear spike not as a result of lack of material or trouble getting the experts or price related reasons but literally as the reaction to environmentalists, it also saw the surprising and deliberate de-industrialization policies, and to top it all of it was followed by victory of the radical left, leftist victory followed by possibly the the least decisive election in German history.
Germany stopped being predictable on economic matters some time ago.
We do not even know if the current government of Germany is right or left wing yet.
I’m not sure what young Americans are willing to do
Sweating doesn’t seem
Part of their landscape
Removing the option of feeding at the govt trough would do wonders. When able bodied adults have a choice of working to earn $ to put food on the table and keep the lights on OR starving outside in the heat/cold/rain/snow of they refuse to work….I suspect folks will go to work. Especially if they can earn a decent wage doing it.
end public sector unions in america
untold savings to the taxpayers
shrink the federal workforce as is being attempted by the trump admin
reciprocal economics for everything..EVERYTHING with other. countries
no more income tax on citizens
and how does india ( and others) actually pay the usa for those goods???
betting usa tax payers funding via allll those usaid etc etc un entities created to destroy the west
The ‘i’ in BRICS is India.
Cutting out that ‘I’ would be a big win.
Off topic, but Dear God
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/04/breaking-gorsuch-roberts-side-liberal-justices-illegal-alien/
Any talk of India shutting down the telemarketing call centre industry?
1000 upticks