'Has to be mutually beneficial’: S Jaishankar on India-US trade pact talks amid Donald Trump's ‘zero tariff deal’ claim

India has seemingly denied President Donald Trump's claim that New Delhi is offering a zero-tariff trade deal to Washington, with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar saying that the trade talks are still going on.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, hours after Trump's claim, Jaishankar said that the negotiations are complicated.

“Between India and the US, trade talks have been going on. These are complicated negotiations. Nothing is decided till everything is,” he said.

The Union minister added that any judgment on a probable India-US trade deal would be ‘premature’ till the actual deal is closed.

“Any trade deal has to be mutually beneficial; it has to work for both countries. That would be our expectation from the trade deal. Until that is done, any judgment on it would be premature,” he told reporters.

What did Donald Trump claim?

Earlier today, US President Donald Trump claimed that India offered a deal with "basically zero tariffs" on US goods.

"They have offered us a deal where we're basically they're willing to charge us no tariff literally," President Trump said while addressing a news conference in Doha.

However, he did not provide any specifics about the alleged deal.

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 US 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 Washington to lower its tariffs as a major trading partner.

Opposition lashes out

Following Donald Trump's big claim, the Congress lashed out at the Centre.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh raised questions on Trump's claims. He further questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on this issue.

“The Commerce Minister is in Washington DC and President Trump has made yet another grand announcement from Doha. There is total chuppi from our PM. What has he agreed to and what linkage is there between this and the stoppage of Operation Sindoor?” Ramesh posted on X.

Congress MP Manish Tewari questioned the BJP-led central government's trade policy and demanded an explicit answer from the government.

In a social media post on X, Tewari said, “Is it a fact that India has offered a Zero Tariff deal to the United States? That needs an explicit answer from the Government?”