India-US trade talks end without major progress

NEW DELHI: US and Indian trade negotiators ended talks on Friday without making major progress on a range of disputes over tariffs and other protectionist measures imposed by both sides that are straining bilateral ties, according to officials with knowledge of the discussions.

Many of the toughest questions on agricultural

commodities, e-commerce, and steel and aluminum, have been put off until Indian
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal goes to Washington for talks with
United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer next month. The dates for
that trip are yet to be settled.

“No breakthrough,” said one of the senior

Indian officials involved in the talks in New Delhi that went on for a little
over three hours. He declined to make any further comment.

Two other Indian officials said they hoped that

some of the issues will be resolved when Goyal goes to Washington.

Friday’s talks were more about understanding

each other’s positions in various disputes, they said.

There was no official statement issued by

either country by early Friday evening.

The two sides resumed talks after US President

Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi met on the sidelines of the G20
summit in June where they agreed to seek to deepen the two countries’
relationship.

Trump said at that summit that there would be a

“very big trade deal” with India, though he set no timeline, and has only this
week used Twitter to attack what he says are high Indian tariffs on American goods
as “unacceptable”.

TIT-FOR-TAT

MOVES

The US sought the rollback of Indian tariffs

imposed on some agricultural products, such as almonds, when the two sides met
on Friday, said one of the Indian government sources.

Those tariffs were imposed by the Indian

government in response to the Trump administration’s decision to remove trade
privileges from Indian products under the Generalized System of Preferences.
India has asked for those privileges, effectively zero tariffs on a range of
Indian products entering the United States, to be reinstated.

India did not commit to any changes to foreign

investment rules for foreign e-commerce firms such as Walmart’s (WMT.N)
Flipkart and Amazon (AMZN.O), one of the Indian sources said. The rules have
forced the two American companies to rework their business strategies for
India.

Walmart told the US government privately in

January that India’s new investment rules for e-commerce were regressive and
had the potential to hurt trade ties, Reuters reported on Thursday.

One concern now among Indian policymakers is

that the Trump administration may push for a free trade agreement with India
that could dent India’s competitiveness, lead to a flurry of imports and hurt
Modi’s “Make in India” plan.

In a recent meeting, Foreign Minister

Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told trade ministry officials that “Trump is clearly
preparing for a larger game, a larger opening,” according to one of the
officials aware of the discussions.