New Delhi, India – United States President Donald Trump has announced what he described as a “trade deal” with India to reduce market barriers between the two countries, which have a combined gross domestic product of $33 trillion.On Monday, Trump said he would reduce trade tariffs on Indian goods from 50 to 18 percent after New Delhi agreed to stop buying Russian oil – one of the major sticking points between the two sides.Trump said he reached the agreement with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a telephone call. The agreement comes at the end of the first year of Trump’s global trade war – of which India had been one of the worst casualties and which had seen relations between the two countries fall to new lows in recent months.On Tuesday, India’s commerce minister, Priyush Goyal, confirmed that the two countries would sign a deal “shortly”. A joint statement will be released when the final details have been agreed, he said. However, he gave no further details about the contents of the agreement.Beyond Trump’s announcement about tariffs on Indian goods, therefore, uncertainty about the future of US-India trade relations remains. For one, while Trump claims New Delhi has agreed to buy oil from the US instead, India has not pu …
