White House Economic Advisor Kevin Hassett Says India Trade Deal Talks Got ‘Pretty Complicated’, But Remains Hopeful: Report

• On Monday, India’s Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Puri, announced that the country had signed its first long-term liquified petroleum gas deal with the U.S.
• As part of the deal, India’s public sector oil companies will import approximately 2.2 million tonnes of LPG per annum from the U.S. Gulf Coast.
• Hassett also voiced concerns that AI could be causing a cool-down in the labor market due to increased productivity.

White House Economic Advisor Kevin Hassett on Monday reportedly said that the trade deal talks with India got “pretty complicated” because of the country’s interactions with Russia.

In an interview with CNBC, Hassett remained optimistic about striking an agreement with India, but added that there are a lot of different variables in the India-U.S. relationship.

“Yeah, we were for sure very close. I’ve spoken to the ambassador, and we’ve had visits. I think that it’s a complicated situation because [of] the interactions India does with Russia, and what India does with us,” he said during the interview.

In October, President Donald Trump stated that the U.S. is “doing a trade deal with India.”

India Signs Gas Deal

Earlier on Monday, India’s Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Puri, announced that the country had signed its first long-term liquified petroleum gas (LPG) deal with the U.S.

“Indian PSU oil companies have successfully concluded a 1 year deal for imports of around 2.2 MTPA LPG, close to 10% of our annual imports - for the contract year 2026, to be sourced from the US Gulf Coast,” Puri said in a post on X.

Hassett’s Caution On AI

During the interview with CNBC, Hassett also expressed concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) technology could be contributing to a slowdown in the labor market due to increased productivity.

“There could be a little bit of, almost, quiet time in the labor market, because firms are finding that AI is making their workers so productive that they don’t necessarily have to hire the new kids out of college and so on,” he said in the interview.

Meanwhile, U.S. equities were mixed in Monday’s opening trade. At the time of writing, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 index, was down by 0.07%, the Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (QQQ) gained 0.07%, while the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA) fell 0.15%. Retail sentiment around the S&P 500 ETF on Stocktwits was in the ‘bullish’ territory.

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