India and US inch closer to interim trade deal ahead of Trump's deadline
KIRAN SHARMA
NEW DELHI -- India and the U.S. appear on the verge of concluding an interim trade deal ahead of President Donald Trump's Wednesday deadline, when Indian goods would start facing 26% "reciprocal" tariffs, as the sides push toward a comprehensive agreement that could be finalized later this year.
The development could help India avoid a steep tariff escalation. It follows a U.S.-Vietnam deal announced on Wednesday in which the U.S. will impose 20% tariffs on Vietnamese goods, lower than the previously threatened 46%.
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Joao Alfredo Nyegray, an international business and geopolitics professor at the Pontifical Catholic University in Parana, said the summit could have played a role in showing an alternative to an unstable world, but won't do so. "The withdrawal of Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and the uncertainty about the level of representation for countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are confirming the difficulty for the BRICS to establish themselves as a cohesive pole of global leadership," Nyegray said. "This moment demands high level articulation, but we are actually seeing dispersion." Brazil skittish in light of Trump tariffs Brazil, the country that chairs the bloc, has picked six strategic priorities for the summit: global cooperation in healthcare; trade, investment and finance; climate change; governance for artificial intelligence; peace-making and security; and institutional development. 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The meeting also represents an opportunity to advance climate negotiations and commitments on protecting the environment before November's COP 30 climate talks in the Amazonian city of Belem.
