Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal said at the Lok Sabha that India will take all the necessary steps to protect national interests. He was referring to US President Donald Trump’s threat of imposing a 25 per cent tariff on Indian goods on August 1 despite a meeting scheduled between both sides on August 25 to discuss the deal. 

“India will take all possible interests to protect our interests,” he said, adding that India’s trade has massively increased in the last five years. “India has established trade ties with Australia, UK and many other nations,” he said. Goyal said that international agencies look at India as a bright spot in the global economy. 

He said India and the US decided to talk over a mutually-beneficial trade deal to be completed by fall of this year after Washington imposed a 26 per cent tariff on India, which was subsequently paused till August 1. The first round of talks were conducted on March 29 for the early tranche of bilateral trade agreement. 

India and the US held four more rounds of talks after that, apart from the many virtual meetings, he said. 

Separately, government sources told Business Today TV that India will not retaliate against the US on President Donald Trump’s jibes. “Whatever we do, we will do on the negotiation table. When we did nuclear testing, so many sanctions were put on us. Then, we were a small economy. Today, we are such a self-sufficient economic power, why should we worry now?” said a source.

Goyal’s statement comes after Trump called the Indian economy “dead”. “I don’t care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care. We have done very little business with India, their tariffs are too high, among the highest in the world,” he said.