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Trump says India called, wants to do a trade deal

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U.S President Donald Trump, at a Joint Fundraising Committee Reception in South Dakota, said that India had called and expressed its desire for a trade deal, PTI reported.

“Frankly, I’ll tell you, India called us the other day. They said they would like to start doing a trade deal, first time,” Trump said. “They wouldn’t talk about it with previous administrations. They were very happy with the way it was.”

Trump commended his trade representatives headed by Bob Lighthizer (the US Trade Representative) and said they were ‘very tough, smart and very good’.

“We have very talented people. They said, ‘Why are you calling?’ Because of President Trump. I was going to wait a little while. We’re going to — like they want to do it,” Trump said, without disclosing details.

The United States and Japan have also started discussions over trade, he said, adding that he had become ‘friends’ with foreign leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

“Practically, every time a foreign leader comes in to see me, whether it’s Abe of Japan, whether it’s Modi of India, I’ve become friends with all of them,” he said.

“You know, some of them are tough relationships because they’ve really been taken advantage of our country for many, many decades. But I’m friendly. They respect me. I respect them. They’re respecting our country again,” he said.

Trump said, “Think of this. One point in GDP, now when I started, it was down into low ones. President Obama had the lowest recovery since the Great Depression, so lowest. the worst recovery. It was like this. It was just terrible. And I’m not even knocking it. It was terrible.”

“We have such incredible growth. What’s happened has been very much of a miracle, but they haven’t seen the miracle yet. The miracle is going to start because now we’re getting things ready,” Trump said.

He pointed out that since countries like India and China could grow at a fast pace, why couldn’t the U.S do the same.

“I’ve said, ‘You fixed a trade deal. When India has six, seven, eight per cent, when China used to have 11, 12 per cent, they’re still at six or seven, when they’re at seven per cent they’re feeling badly. And I’d say, ‘How come we have to be at one per cent?” Well, it’s the size. I said, ‘Really? Well, China is bigger than we are and India has 1.5 billion people. How come they’re at 10 per cent and 11 per cent?’ Well, they can’t answer it,” Trump said.

“They can be at 11 per cent and we’re at 1 per cent, and they’re saying, oh, that’s great. No, no, we have more potential than any other country,” Trump said.

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