NEW DELHI/WASHINGTON: After five rounds of trade negotiations, Indian officials were so confident of securing a favorable deal with the United States that they even signalled to the media that tariffs could be capped at 15 percent.
Indian officials expected US President Donald Trump to announce the deal himself weeks before the August 1 deadline.
The announcement never came.
New Delhi is now left with the surprise imposition of a 25 percent tariff on Indian goods from Friday, along with unspecified penalties over oil imports from Russia, while Trump has closed larger deals with Japan and the EU, and even offered better terms to arch-rival Pakistan.
Interviews with four Indian government officials and two US government officials revealed previously undisclosed details of the proposed deal and an exclusive account of how negotiations collapsed despite technical agreements on most issues.
