By Shubham Batra, Shivangi Acharya and Ira Dugal NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India has offered to slash its tariff gap with the U.S. to less than 4% from nearly 13% now, in exchange for an exemption from President Donald Trump's "current and potential" tariff hikes,

India is offering to slash its tariff gap with the US by 9% to avoid Trump’s hikes & secure a $129B trade deal, while seeking tech ally status.

The two countries signed a deal three years after negotiations began to strengthen alliances in what the British prime minister called a “new era” of trade.