'India would love to have a big, beautiful pact': Nirmala Sitharaman quotes Trump on India-US trade deal

As the July 9 deadline of US President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs nears, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that India would love to have a "big, beautiful" trade agreement with the United States, but conditions apply.

Sitharaman said that India does have defined red lines vis-a-vis its agriculture and dairy sectors that should be considered. Quoting Trump, Sitharaman said in an interview with The Indian Express: "Yes, I'd love to have an agreement, a big, good, beautiful one; why not?" 

She also took this opportunity to talk about the 'tariff king' label often used by Trump against India. The Union Minister said that the country's effective tariff rates are far lower than they appear to be. 

"The effective tariff rates are (lower than the limits) announced in the gazette with Parliament approval, which is itself far below the WTO boundary. So, for India to be called a tariff king and so on is absolutely unjustified." 

She further said that negotiators from the Indian side factored in the industry's concerns before they sat down for talks. Sitharaman explained that in India, the government gets approval from the Parliament for setting tariffs at a certain level, but effectively, it is implemented at a far lower level. 

When asked about areas with fewer or no domestic challenges in the agricultural sector, she said: "Possibly. But that (opening them up) is only with the consent of the department of agriculture. There’s no way we could do anything that which would weaken our agriculture, our farmers’ positions." 

Sitharaman's comments come on the back of Trump's announcement that an India-US trade deal could be revealed potentially before July 8. He said that the deal might include dropping all trade barriers, and key sectors likely to be impacted are IT, manufacturing, services and automobiles. 

The terms of the bilateral trade deal are now agreed upon and locked, India Today reported, quoting sources. Last week, the POTUS said that a "very big deal" with India might take place soon. 

"We're going to open up India. In the China deal, we're starting to open up China. Things that never really could have happened, and the relationship with every country has been very good," Trump added.