In an early reaction to the India-EU deal, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said India had come out on top in the negotiations. He mocked the European Union for importing low-cost labour from India, contrasting it with the Donald Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the United States.
In an early reaction to the India-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA), US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has said that India come out on top in the negotiations.
Greer mocked the European Union (EU) for importing low-cost labour from India as part of the agreements signed along with the trade deal and contrasted it with the Donald Trump administration’s ongoing crackdown on immigrants in the United States.
“I think India comes out on top on this, frankly. They get more market access into Europe. It sounds like they have some additional immigration rights,” Greer told Fox Business.
India and the EU announced the much-awaited trade deal on Tuesday at the India-EU Summit that would reduce tariffs on more than 90 per cent of goods. Among the 13 outcomes, they also reached a mobility agreement for skilled professionals.
Greer went on to link the India-EU trade deal with Trump’s tariff war on the world.
“It’s important to understand that because President Trump has prioritised domestic production and essentially started charging a fee for other countries to access our market, these countries are trying to find other outlets for their overproduction. And, so, the EU is turning to India to try to find a plate. The EU is so trade dependent, they need other outlets if they can’t keep sending all their stuff to the United States,” said Greer.
BIG BREAKING: America says India got a great trade deal with the EU
“India has come out on top in this deal. They get more market access and immigration to Europe. India is going to have a heyday with this,” says US Trade Rep Greer pic.twitter.com/ViQQ5GIa9m
— Shashank Mattoo (@MattooShashank) January 28, 2026
While India-EU trade negotiations predate Trump’s second term, they acquired urgency after Trump unleashed a tariff war and mounted political coercion that hit India and the EU particularly hard.
Trump slapped India with 50 per cent tariffs, the highest in the world, he hit the EU with tariffs in the range of 10-50 per cent on various goods. He also waged a coercion campaign against both India and the EU where he structurally undermined both the sides and strengthened their fundamental adversaries — Pakistan and China in India’s case and anti-EU far-right parties in the EU’s case.
Greer continued the tirade against the EU and said that “India is going to have a heyday with this”.
Greer further said, “They [India] have low-cost labour and it looks like the EU is doubling down on globalisation when we’re trying to fix some of the problems of globalisation here in the US.”
Under the India-EU FTA, the two sides have kept complementarity as the guiding principle. This means that India and EU’s exports to the other do not compete with the domestic industrial base but instead complement it.
Unlike talks with the Trump administration that have been contentious, the India-EU negotiations were conducted in good faith that meant concerns of both the sides were respected — while agriculture and dairy were exempted at India’s behest, India accommodated EU’s concerns on automobiles, wines and spirits, and machinery.
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