Trade Deal With India Is 'Very Close,' Trump Says at G-7

By Fabiana Negrin Ochoa

A trade deal with India is "very close," President Trump told reporters at a briefing with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G-7 summit in France.

The two countries have held several rounds of negotiations on tariffs, and in February said they had reached an agreement to lower the U.S. levy on Indian goods, but a deal has yet to be finalized.

In a post on X, Modi said he and Trump had reviewed sustained progress in bilateral cooperation on trade, energy, defense and technology at their meeting in Evian, France.

Calling Modi a "very tough negotiator," Trump said: "We'll be in India very soon."

Persistent uncertainty about tariffs had cast a shadow over India's economic outlook for months, weighing on market sentiment, but economists say the clouds are clearing.

According to a Barclays research report, at its peak, the trade escalation saw effective U.S. duties on Indian goods reach 50%, dampening the outlook for exports and foreign direct investment.

That combined with a rotation into artificial-intelligence hardware markets elsewhere in Asia and the breakout of war in the Middle East to spur a selloff in India's equities markets, Barclays's Ajay Rajadhyaksha and Aastha Gudwani said.

Three months ago, India faced an energy crisis, tariff headaches and a market priced for considerably worse ahead, Barclays said. As the headwinds start to fade, the world's fastest-growing major economy merits a second look, it added.

Barclays expects India to push for an even lower duty than agreed upon, given that many countries are at 10%, but even if that doesn't happen the situation seems much improved.

At the event in France, Trump said that as long as he is president, India has a great friend in the White House.

Write to Fabiana Negrin Ochoa at fabiana.negrinochoa@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 18, 2026 01:44 ET (05:44 GMT)