Modi Cabinet portfolios: Amit Shah gets Home, Rajnath to be new Defence Minister
New Delhi: Amit Shah will be the new Home minister, Rajnath Singh the new Defence minister and Nirmala Sitharaman the new Finance minister, the Rashtrapati Bhavan announced on Friday.
Former foreign secretary turned minister S Jaishankar has got the External Affairs ministry while Smriti Irani will be the new Women and Child Development Minister along with retaining the Textile Ministry, according to a communiqu issued by the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Nirmala Sitharaman will be the new Finance and Corporate Affairs minister while Nitin Gadkari will continue to be the Minister for Road Transport and Highways.
Piyush Goyal has been given the charge of the ministries of Railways and Commerce while Ravi Shankar Prasad will continue to helm the Ministry of Law, Telecom as well as the IT Ministries.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will retain DoPT, Atomic Energy as well as all important policy issues and portfolios not allocated.
Modi was sworn in on Thursday as prime minister for a second term, helming a 58-member team of ministers, including him and BJP president Amit Shah who makes his debut in the Central government.
A new Ministry of Jal Shakti has been created and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat will be its minister.
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Trump says EU has until July 4 to approve last year's trade deal or it will face higher tariffs
Washington (AP): President Donald Trump has said in a social media post that goods from the European Union would face higher tariff rates if the 27-member bloc fails to approve last year's trade framework by July 4.
The announcement on Thursday appeared to be a deadline extension after the president said last Friday that EU autos would face a higher 25 per cent tariff starting this week. Trump made the updated announcement after what he described as a "great call" with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Still, the US president was displeased that the European Parliament had yet to finalize the trade arrangement reached last year, which was further complicated in February by the US Supreme Court ruling that Trump lacked the legal authority to declare an economic emergency to impose the initial tariffs used to pressure the EU into talks.
"A promise was made that the EU would deliver their side of the Deal and, as per Agreement, cut their Tariffs to ZERO!" Trump posted. "I agreed to give her until our Country's 250th Birthday or, unfortunately, their Tariffs would immediately jump to much higher levels."
It was unclear from the post whether Trump was implying that the tariff rates would jump on all EU goods or the increase would only apply to autos.
His latest statement indicates he might be backing away from his earlier threat on EU autos by giving the European Parliament several more weeks to approve the agreement.
Under the original terms of the framework, the US would charge a 15 per cent tax on most goods imported from the EU.
But since the Supreme Court ruling, the administration has levied a 10 per cent tariff while investigating trade imbalances and national security issues, aiming to put in new tariffs to make up for lost revenues.
