Washington DC: India and the United States are close to reaching a trade deal, said US President Donald Trump on Monday, even as his administration sent letters to 14 countries threatening to impose tariffs.
“We’ve made a deal with the United Kingdom, we’ve made a deal with China, we’re close to making a deal with India,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
New Delhi and Washington have been engaged in intense negotiations to close a trade deal even as America’s reciprocal tariffs - which were delayed for 90 days in April - were extended from July 9 to August 1.
A negotiating team led by special secretary Rajesh Agrawal left America last week after key discussions with the Office of the United States Trade Representative.
“I think they basically sewed up what is likely to be an agreement in principle but not a legally binding agreement in which the two sides issue a statement highlighting what is what has been agreed so far,” Mark Linscott, senior advisor at the Asia Group and former Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asian Affairs, told HT.
“Based on what we’ve heard and read and the conversations we’ve had, I think it will be substantial. I think it will go further than the other two agreements that have been announced so far with the UK and Vietnam. I think there will be benefits for both sides and concessions that have been agreed on both sides. I think it will be substantial on tariffs. It won’t cover the full tariff schedules for each country, but I think it will be substantial in terms of what we call market access. I think it will include a number of priority non-tariff barriers. I think it will at least start to put together the pieces of some complicated areas like digital trade,” added Linscott, who was involved in US-India trade talks during the first Trump administration.
{{/usCountry}}“Based on what we’ve heard and read and the conversations we’ve had, I think it will be substantial. I think it will go further than the other two agreements that have been announced so far with the UK and Vietnam. I think there will be benefits for both sides and concessions that have been agreed on both sides. I think it will be substantial on tariffs. It won’t cover the full tariff schedules for each country, but I think it will be substantial in terms of what we call market access. I think it will include a number of priority non-tariff barriers. I think it will at least start to put together the pieces of some complicated areas like digital trade,” added Linscott, who was involved in US-India trade talks during the first Trump administration.
{{/usCountry}}Bilateral talks on a US-India trade agreement were announced in February this year when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited America. New Delhi and Washington agreed to negotiate the first tranche of a bilateral trade agreement by around September this year. America has eyed greater exports of US industrial goods to India while New Delhi has pushed for greater access for its labour intensive exports to American markets. Increasing bilateral trade in agricultural goods and reducing non-tariff barriers to trade has also been a key focus. During their bilateral meeting, Trump and Modi announced plans to double bilateral trade to roughly $500 billion by 2030.