CNBC Daily Open: EU–India Trade Talks Still in Progress
India and the European Union struck a “landmark” free trade agreement on Tuesday that would eliminate or slash tariffs on more than nine-tenths of traded goods.
Negotiated over nearly two decades, the agreement will see India slash tariffs on two of its politically sensitive industries, agriculture and autos. But the pact also comes as a rush of bilateral trade deals are being inked amid a global restructuring of supply chains and commercial relationships born out of Washington’s hawkish turn toward tariffs.
That geopolitical jostling is already underway. Before this month, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney came the first Canadian leader to visit China in his capacity after 17 times to bolster Canadian profitable ties with China, the world’s alternate- largest frugality. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is planning his own three- day trip to China coming month, the first similar visit by a UK high minister since 2018.
Yet despite European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s declaration that the EU India trade deal is the “mother of all deals,” perhaps its biggest hurdle remains untested: Trump.
While Trump has imposed punitive tariffs on allies and adversaries across the globe, he has remained conspicuously quiet about the India-EU deal. Until now.
Trump last month hit India with increased levies on goods after India continued to buy oil from Russia, days after slapping New Delhi with a 25% tariff.
Trump also in recent weeks turned up his rhetoric toward the EU over a dispute about Greenland, raising questions about how he’ll receive the “historic” deal. International trade talks was underscored on Sunday when U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin called out the EU for agreeing to a trade deal with India in an interview with ABC News.
