Despite US President Donald Trump’s earlier claims that Washington would sign 90 deals in 90 days, it is India that has more deals than the US, said Henrietta Treyz, managing partner and head of economic policy research at Veda Partners. He said Americans are also wary of imposing tariffs on US trading partners.

Speaking to CNBC, Treyz said, “India now has 100 percent more deals than Donald Trump this year. If you remember, they promised 90 deals in 90 days — we have two deals in 10 months, and those are with Cambodia and Malaysia.” His comments come after India and the EU signed a mammoth trade deal, billed as the “mother of all deals”.

Treyz said the deal between the US and South Korea has also not been completed due to numerous issues. South Korea was covered by a free trade agreement with the US, he said. However, Trump has been threatening the EU, Japan and South Korea with tariffs.

“The concern for lawmakers is that Americans don’t like the tariffs. 50 percent of Americans want the Supreme Court to overturn them. … These trade deals and tariffs are weighing on the American psyche and they’re cutting into the president’s numbers,” he said.

Many experts have commented that India and the EU were looking for an exit to diversify away from the US due to its tariffs and pressures. India-EU FTA would then benefit both parties.

India is in the highest tariff band of 50%, including the 25% that Trump imposed on India’s purchase of Russian oil. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said there was still a “way to go” to eliminate the 25% tariff.

“I would imagine there is a way to get them out. So this is a check and a big success,” he added, criticizing Europe’s failure to apply tariffs to India. “Our European virtue-signalling allies refused to do that (impose tariffs) because they wanted to sign this big trade deal with India,” he claimed.

Bessent said the Russian oil that India buys would be refined and the refined products would be sold to Europeans. “They are financing the war against themselves,” he said for the umpteenth time.