US, Indian trade negotiators end trade talks without any breakthrough

11 Nov 2019 Evaluate

Without any breakthrough, the US and Indian trade negotiators have ended their talks on November 08 regarding disputes over tariffs and other protectionist measures imposed by both sides that are damaging bilateral ties. Besides, many of the toughest questions on agricultural commodities, e-commerce, and steel and aluminum, have been put off until commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal goes to Washington for talks with United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer next month. There is hope that some of the issues will be resolved when Goyal goes to Washington.

In the meeting, the US sought the rollback of Indian tariffs imposed on some agricultural products, such as almonds. 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 (GSP). 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 Flipkart and Amazon. The rules have forced the two American companies to rework their business strategies for India.

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 had said 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’.

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