Trump aide reacts as India-EU sign FTA, says New Delhi ‘is going to have a heyday' with deal

As India and the European Union (EU) concluded a historic Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on Tuesday, the United States reacted, saying that New Delhi stands to gain more than the EU from the deal.

According to US President Donald Trump's representative Jamieson Greer, India is going to have a ‘heyday’ with the India-EU FTA once it gets implemented.

“I've looked at some of the details of the deal so far. I think India comes out on top on this, frankly. They get more market access into Europe,” he said in an interview with Fox Business on Tuesday.

Talking about the terms of the India-EU FTA, dubbed as the “Mother of All Deals”, the Trump aide said that the deal will allow more Indians to have immigration rights.

“It sounds like they (India) have some additional immigration rights. I don't know for sure, but President (Ursula) von der Leyen of the EU has talked about mobility for Indian workers into Europe. So I think on net, India is going to have a heyday with this. They have low-cost labour,” Greer told the news channel.

EU turning to India

The Trump aide also appeared to take a dig at the EU, saying that the nations are doubling down on globalisation, “when we're trying to fix some of the problems with globalisation here in the US”.

“So the EU is turning to India to try to find a place. The EU is so trade dependent, they need other outlets if they can't keep sending all their stuff to the United States,” he said.

India-EU FTA

On Tuesday, India and the EU signed a "milestone" deal, dubbed the "Mother of All Deals", by concluding their negotiations for an FTA.

The deal is one of India's most strategic economic partnerships, designed as a modern, rules-based trade partnership, which responds to contemporary global challenges while enabling deeper market integration between the world's fourth- and second-largest economies.

Both sides also signed a landmark Security and Defence Partnership, marking the first overarching defence and security framework between the two sides, as leaders from both blocs agreed to significantly deepen cooperation across strategic, regional and global security domains.

India-US trade deal

India and the United States are still in talks to sign a trade deal as the US continues to impose a 50% tariff on Indian exports.

Talking about the India-US trade deal, Greer said that New Delhi has more work to do to satisfy US concerns about its purchase of Russian oil.

New Delhi has made “a lot of progress” on Russian oil purchase, but it is hard for them to completely cut out the supplies because “they like the discount that you get from Russian oil,” Greer said in the interview.

“I am in frequent contact with my counterpart in India. I have a great working relationship with him, but they still have a ways to go on this point,” he said.