Mediation, tariffs: US Prez sums up areas of unease in 2 key words

TRUMP ACKNOWLEDGED RELIGIOUS FREEDOM FIGURED IN HIS TALKS WITH MODI, BUT DUCKED A QUESTION ON THE CAA, SAYING IT WAS “UP TO INDIA” TO DEAL WITH IT

NEW DELHI: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday again offered to mediate to resolve differences between India and Pakistan and criticised New Delhi’s tariff regime, but also held out hope of a trade deal by the end of the year.

Addressing the first standalone news conference in India by a visiting US president in recent history, Trump sidestepped direct questions on what the US could do to counter terrorism emanating from Pakistani soil, saying only that this was a problem that he believed PM Narendra Modi would take care of.

Trump said, “Anything I can do to mediate, anything I can do to help, I would do. They are working on Kashmir. Kashmir has been a thorn in a lot of people’s sides for a long time. And there are two sides to every story.”

Trump raised India’s tariff regime and said the US wants to be treated fairly and given reciprocal access to the Indian market. “India is probably the highest tariff nation in the world...and I said we have to stop that, we have to stop it, at least, as it pertains to the US,” he said.

Just like China, which recently concluded the first phase of a trade deal with the US, New Delhi too will deal with Washington, he said. He again raised the issue of Indian tariffs on Harley-davidson motorcycles and said they were “unfair”.

“I want reciprocal, it has to be reciprocal…the US has to be treated fairly, and India understands that,” Trump said.