President Donald Trump has made an interesting claim saying that India wants to have a trade deal with the U.S. as it wants to avoid the fate being suffered by China and does not want him to impose tariffs on Indian products.

Trump's remarks comes days after Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Mark Linscott returned from India where he had detailed discussion with senior Indian officials on bilateral trade and a possible trade deal between the two countries.

"We have a country, take India. Good relationship. They want to make a deal now because they don't want me to do what I'm going to do, with I have to. So, they (Indians) call us. They didn't want to make a deal with anybody else," he said at a rally in West Virginia.

Trump referred to India in the context of his repeated allegation that other countries have been taking advantage of America in the past. The U.S. President has imposed trade tariffs worth $200 billion on Chinese goods being imported into his country. He has accused China of trying to unfairly acquire American intellectual property by forcing American companies into joint initiatives as well as imposing tariffs on American imports.

Trump in early this month had said India wanted a trade deal with the U.S. despite the Trump administration's tough stance on the issue. "Take India. You talk about free trade. So, let's say they (Indians) charge us 60 per cent tariff on a product. And for the same product when they send it in (America), we charge them nothing. So now I want to charge them 25 per cent or 20 or 10 or something," Trump said.

"What do you think? That's not free trade. We don't like it. I said, where are these people coming from? So, think of it. Where are they coming from?" Trump said on Saturday referring to the conversations his officials are having with the Indian government. Trump told the crowd that he is using India just as an example.

However, Trump’s “America first” policy has not been welcomed by all American companies. Iconic American bike manufacturer Harley Davidson shifted some its manufacturing abroad after Donald Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium products imported into the U.S. Similarly, a group of 80 industry groups have come together to oppose his tariffs policy. (With Agency inputs)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 01, 2018 06:55 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).