Donald Trump makes BIG claim: India has made offer to charge ‘zero tariffs’ on US goods

US President Donald Trump has said that India is offering his country with a trade deal with zero tariffs.

Speaking on Thursday at Doha, Trump claimed that India has made an offer to drop tariffs on US goods.

The US President made the claim at an event with business leaders in Qatar, offered, revealing that New Delhi has offered “us a deal where basically they are willing to literally charge us no tariff,” as per reports by Reuters and Bloomberg.

However, Donald Trump did not delve into details of the apparent offer made by the Indian government.

The Centre has not yet released an official statement regarding this comment.

The Trump administration on April 2 imposed a 26 per cent reciprocal tariff on Indian imports to the US as part of its mega announcement of sweeping new levies. A week later, the President gave India and other countries a 90-day pause to strike trade deals and lower tariffs. Since then, New Delhi has been seeking to clinch a trade deal with the US to lower its tariffs as a major trading partner.

The United States is India's largest trading partner, with bilateral trade totalling some $129 billion in 2024. The trade balance is currently in favour of India, which runs a $45.7 billion surplus with the US.

Trump's issue with Apple's expansion in India

Donald Trump has also said on Thursday that he had spoken with the Apple CEO Tim Cook and asked him to limit Apple's expansion in India.

"I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday. I said to him, my friend, I am treating you very good. You are coming up with $500 billion but now I hear you are building all over India. I don't want you building in India. You can build in India, if you want to take care of India because India is one of the highest tariff nations in the world, so it is very hard to sell in India," Trump said while addressing a news conference in Doha, Qatar.

Recently, Apple took some steps to expand its iPhone production in India, setting up assembly plants operating in the country. Two of these plants are located in Tamil Nadu, and one is in Karnataka. For these plants Apple has signed contract with manufacturers, such as Foxconn and Tata Group to set up production units.