On the ongoing talks regarding a trade deal with America, US Ambassador to India Sergio Gore has said that almost 99 percent of the matter has been finalized, only one percent is left. He told that almost a consensus has been reached between both the parties, only a few issues are left which are yet to be discussed. He told that he will meet Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal tomorrow for the remaining 1 percent work.

According to NDTV report, Sergio Gore said that only one percent of the issues remained to be agreed upon. However, he has clearly refused to tell what things are yet to be agreed upon. Sergio Gore said that he does not want to talk about these issues publicly.

‘There is agreement with India on 99 percent issues’, said Sergio Gore
Sergio Gore said, ‘I don’t want to talk about these things publicly, but only one percent of such things are left. It is unbelievable that 99 percent things have been agreed upon and when you are so close to the target, one percent things are stuck.

Sergio Gore said that in trade negotiations both sides have to compromise to reach a beneficial outcome. He said, ‘Look, in such negotiations, every side has to give something, right? That is why it is considered a beneficial situation for both the parties.

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‘Talks will be held on trade deal soon’, said Sergio Gore
Sergio Gore said that even though there are some problems, this agreement will be reached soon. Sergio Gore said that he will meet Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and will resolve the issue by discussing the remaining one percent agreement. He said that the one percent work that remains to be done is not related to policy differences but related to technical and legal details.

During this, Sergio Gore praised the Indian team which is talking with America on the trade deal and said that they have played an effective role in protecting the interests of their country. He said, ‘I would like to praise India and say that you have an incredible team.’ Sergio Gore also said that India’s tough stance on many issues has made trade talks with its partners challenging.

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He said that this is the reason why this trade deal took so long to happen because America could not enter the Indian market due to India’s strict stance on some things. He said that this is the reason why it took 19 years for the European Union to deal with India. However, Sergio Gore is very positive about the trade deal between India and America.

Pakistan has suffered a double blow due to the increasing closeness between India and America. Firstly, the American tariff on Indian goods reduced and on top of that, Donald Trump imposed less than that on Pakistan, secondly, the long pending $500 billion trade deal was also approved, and Trump also described Prime Minister Narendra Modi as his best friend. Now Pakistan is sweating after hearing all this. US tariff on India reduced from 50 percent to 18 percent, while 19 percent tariff is applicable on Pakistan.

Pakistani expert Qamar Cheema said that in one of the posts that Mr Trump posted on Truth Social, he has said that PM Modi is my very good friend and he will buy oil from Venezuela and America. Secondly, he has said that our friendship will remain like this. A very interesting scenario has emerged.

Pak expert said that according to the announcement made by US President Donald Trump regarding trade, India will buy energy and technology items worth $500 billion from America.

Qamar Cheema said, ‘I feel that India should not buy these things worth 500 billion dollars because India has to buy things as per its wish. Like Indians are not taking F-35, they are taking SU-57. They say why do we need F-35 and America will not give F-35, money will also get stuck. I had read a Japanese report that it has been five years that 7.2 billion dollars are stuck, their defense products are not coming from America, so these are the things.

Qamar Cheema said that last week India has signed a free trade agreement with 27 countries of the European Union, so Trump was thinking that all the western partners of America have sided with India, so why should I leave such a big market of India and he himself also wants to come to me. He said that the western media is writing that we have won a lottery with this deal. That lottery came about because they thought how long will this continue, you are reducing your options.

Pak expert Qamar Cheema said that this was also discussed in America that PM Modi has made more deals than Trump. There was also a thought going on that brother, what is happening? Basically EU has pushed America to trade with India.

Pakistanis are extremely irritated after hearing the news of reduction in US tariffs on India. Pakistani expert Qamar Cheema says that India has the lowest tariff in the whole of Asia and India must have asked America to impose 18 percent tariff so that it is one percent less than Pakistan. 19 percent tariff is applicable on Pakistan.

US President Donald Trump on Monday (February 2, 2026) announced the long-pending trade deal with India and reduction of tariff from 50 percent to 18 percent. On this, Pak expert Qamar Cheema said, ‘India has got the lowest tariffs in Asia. India 18 percent, Pakistan 19 percent. Indians must have told Trump that we will make this deal with you, but in terms of tariff, we must keep it 1 percent below Pakistan. We do not want to be put at par with Pakistan. I am telling you this 100 percent, then 18 percent tariff was imposed.

Qamar Cheema said that India has brought itself in front of Pakistan. It is an interesting thing. He said that there is 34 percent tariff on Indonesia 19, Thailand 19, Bangladesh 20, Vietnam 20 and China. Now the White House has confirmed that the 25 percent tariff imposed on India for buying Russian oil will also be removed. Qamar Cheema said that the final tariff is 18 percent. Everyone is saying the same thing that 19 percent for Pakistan and 18 percent for India. Everyone is saying this.

Qamar Cheema said that India’s Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Union pushed America to make a trade deal with India. On January 27, India signed an FTA with the European Union, which was called the Mother of All Deals. Under this, India can sell its goods in the markets of 27 European countries at low or zero tariff. Similarly, goods from European countries will also be able to be sold in the Indian markets.

Pak expert said that in one of the posts that Mr Trump posted on Truth Social, he has said that PM Modi is my very good friend and he will buy oil from Venezuela and America. Secondly, he has said that our friendship will remain like this. A very interesting scenario has emerged.

Finally, the trade deal that everyone was waiting for has happened. Announcing the much-awaited trade deal with India on his social media platform Truth Social, US President Donald Trump said that India has agreed not to buy oil from Russia, hence the tariff penalty imposed on India is removed and also the tariff which was 25 percent has now been reduced to 18 percent.

Trump has also said that this deal has been reached after a phone conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and it is implemented with immediate effect. But the question is what are the terms of this deal. Has India really benefited from this deal? After all, what was the issue due to which this deal was stalled and now what happened that Trump agreed to make a deal with India, today there will be a clear cut discussion on this issue.

Let us first talk about the conditions set by US President Trump regarding this deal. So the condition is that

• India will purchase more than $500 billion of energy, technology, agricultural products, coal and other goods from America.
• India will now stop purchasing Russian oil and will instead buy more oil and energy from Venezuela.
• India will move towards reducing its tariff and non-tariff barriers on American goods to zero.
• India will now buy American goods at a higher level.

The question remains that what was the issue due to which this deal was stalled and now what happened that Trump agreed to make a deal with India, then there are two-three possible reasons for it.

1. The first reason is the purchase of oil from Russia. Trump wanted India not to buy oil from Russia, whereas India used to buy oil from Russia and still does. India has not yet officially refused to buy oil from Russia, but Trump feels that India has stopped buying oil from Russia, so he finalized the deal.
2. The second reason is India’s lack of agreement on agricultural products. Under the trade deal, Trump wanted India to buy dairy products from America, which also included animal feed. Meat was mixed in America’s fodder, due to which India was opposing that fodder. And the deal was stuck. Even now it has not been made clear from India whether there is agreement or disagreement on that fodder, but Trump feels that India has agreed to the purchase.
3. The third reason is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call. US Commerce Minister Howard Lutnick had recently claimed that the India-US trade deal could not be done because PM Narendra Modi did not call Donald Trump at the last moment. Then Lutnik had also claimed that everything was ready, but PM Modi did not call, due to which the deal was stopped. Then the Indian government had rejected this claim. And now Trump himself has said that he had a phone conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after which the deal was finalized, but it is still not clear who made the call, Prime Minister Narendra Modi or US President Trump.

Nevertheless, India has welcomed this deal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself has reacted to this trade deal and posted on social media and wrote, ‘It was a great pleasure to talk to my dear friend President Trump. I am happy that now the tariff on Made in India products will be reduced to 18%. On behalf of the 1.4 billion people of India, many thanks to President Trump for this wonderful announcement.

In the tweet made on this deal, Prime Minister Modi has further written, ‘When two big economies and the world’s largest democracies work together, it benefits our people and opens up immense opportunities for beneficial cooperation. President Trump’s leadership is extremely important for world peace, stability and prosperity. India fully supports his efforts for peace. I look forward to working closely with them to take our partnership to unprecedented heights.

Now the real question is, what is India going to benefit from this deal or what are the benefits, then understand that also, then we will definitely talk about the losses also. So first let’s talk about benefits. India’s advantage is that

• America has increased the tariff on India to 18 percent. Due to this, the impact on India’s American exports will be less. India will now be able to sell more goods to America, whereas China, Bangladesh and Vietnam who sell goods to America have higher tariffs than India, so American consumers will be more interested in Indian goods.
• Many sectors of India, such as textiles, engineering goods, IT, auto parts, gems-jewellery and pharma sectors will directly benefit. If exports in these areas increase due to reduction in tariffs, new employment opportunities will also be created in India.
• Due to the finalization of the trade deal, the uncertainty that existed in the relations between America and India will end. And because of this foreign investors will be able to invest in India. Especially the confidence of American investors will increase and they will invest money in India, because recently their confidence was shaken due to the sourness in the relations between India and America.
• India’s dominance in Asia will increase and so will trade with America, because while the tariff on India is 18 percent, the tariff on Pakistan is 19 percent and the tariff on Bangladesh is 20 percent. Malaysia, Cambodia and Thailand also have higher tariffs than India and they are 19 percent, while Vietnam has 20 percent. The highest tariff in Asia is on China, which is currently 37 percent. If we talk about the world, then the highest tariff of 50 percent is on Brazil and then 40-40 percent tariff is on Myanmar and Laos. So in this matter India has only advantage.
• The stock market has the fastest reaction to any deal or any decision and after the announcement of this deal the stock market is completely on the rise. The stormy rise of Sensex and Nifty is enough to show that India is going to get huge benefits from this deal. At the same time, the rupee is also rising, which is enough to show the benefits of this deal. The rupee, which had closed at 91.50 on February 2, reached 90.30 on February 3 after the deal and Bloomberg’s report says that this is the biggest one-day gain in the rupee since 2021. Market analysts believe that the rupee may strengthen further and reach the level of 89.50 to 89.00 in the coming weeks.

While there are so many advantages, there are also some disadvantages and that loss can also be big, on which there is no reaction from the government at present. However, the government has also given clarification on this matter and said that India will not suffer any loss. So what will be the loss? The loss will be that

• India used to buy cheap oil from Russia. Now it will have to buy expensive oil from America and Venezuela. If oil purchase becomes expensive then the people of India will also get expensive oil.
• India sells dairy products to other countries of the world, but if Trump has talked about a deal in dairy products also, then Indian farmers may have to face tough competition from American dairy and poultry products.
• Agriculture has also been discussed in the deal. America is a producer of soybean and maize and its goods are cheaper than India. If America sells its goods to India, which is part of the deal, then the challenge for Indian farmers will become bigger and the farmers who are already facing problems will face even more problems.
• India’s trade with America has been a trade surplus. That means India was selling more goods to America and buying less. Under the agreement, India will have to reduce its tariffs on American goods to zero, which will pose a challenge to domestic industries as they will not get fair prices for their goods.

In such a situation, India is benefiting from this deal but the loss is also not less. Moody’s has clearly said in its comment that completely switching to non-Russian oil could further tighten the global supply, which would lead to higher prices and there would be a risk of inflation in a big importing country like India. The agency said India is unlikely to immediately stop all Russian purchases to avoid disruption to economic growth. However, an even bigger loss seems to be happening to Indian farmers, dairy farmers and poultry farm owners and these are the people, to save their losses, India was not only postponing this deal for so long but also did not budge even after the imposition of 50 per cent tariff. Now Trump himself has told all the details and conditions of this deal. Whatever statement will be made by India on this deal or whatever conditions will be revealed, it will again be a clear cut matter.

US President Donald Trump on Monday (February 2, 2025) not only announced a trade deal and tariff reduction with India on social media platform X, but also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Experts believe that the reason for this big change in Trump’s stance could be the recent Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Union. He says that due to FTA, there was pressure on America to make a trade agreement with India.

Farwa Amer, director of South Asia Initiatives at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said on Monday that even though talks were already going on about a trade deal between India and America, the deal with the European Union has played a role in speeding up the process for America. He said the timing of the agreement is also interesting, as it came right after the EU’s FTA.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump announced that a trade agreement has been signed between the two countries. Under this, America will reduce the duty on exports from India from 25 percent to 18 percent. According to the White House, America will also remove the additional punitive duty of 25 percent imposed on India for buying Russian oil. This success was achieved after negotiations that lasted for about a year. During this period, the talks between the two countries went through difficult times many times. This agreement was announced after a phone conversation between PM Modi and President Trump.

Farwa Amer said that questions related to Russia are still important for India. Even though India is making changes in its oil imports, it wants to keep its relations with Russia balanced. Amer said, ‘For India, the question of Russia remains. Even though it has and will change its oil import pattern from Russia, India would still like to keep the relationship stable. As far as the India-US trade deal is concerned, the talks at the top leadership level made this agreement possible.

Another trade expert Wendy Cutler says that this agreement will give India an advantage compared to the countries of South-East Asia. There will be 18 percent duty on Indian products in America, while this duty on ASEAN countries will be between 19 to 20 percent. This will give a slight advantage to Indian exporters.

Cutler, senior vice president of ASPI and former acting US Trade Representative, said it was likely the US got a better deal than the EU. He said that India has talked about reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers, but President Trump’s language is not clear on this. However, Trump has said in his social media post that India will move towards reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers against America to zero.

Overall, Cutler said the India-US agreement will pave the way for the US and India to work together on other important matters related to critical minerals, technology cooperation and supply chain resilience. Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has left for America on a tour, where he will participate in the ministerial meeting on important minerals.