Regarding India-US trade pact, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that negotiations for the India-US trade agreement are still underway, but both sides appear to have reached a 'plateau', with limited room for further concessions from either side. She said a predominant feature of India-US trade relations is the trade imbalance in India's favour, with the US seeking to reduce its deficit. She said “Naturally, the deficit is there on their side, or the balance is unfavourable for the US, so they would want to reduce that imbalance” and added that Washington would seek to make up, from its perspective, for what it believes it has lost over the years.
Drawing a comparison with India's trade relationship with China, Sitharaman said trade imbalances have traditionally been addressed through negotiations, with countries seeking greater market access for their goods and services. However, she said tariffs are increasingly being used as a tool to address trade imbalances. She said 'Now the imbalance is being sought to be addressed through other means, where tariffs have become weaponised. Tariff was an instrument of negotiation, and tariff had a certain framework within which you would apply it. Today, the framework is there, but tariffs are going”.
On the India-EU trade deal, Sitharaman observed that it is a standing example of how India is negotiating and finalising trade deals. She said that calling it the “Mother of All Deals” is absolutely appropriate, as it will be an agreement between people totalling two billion, covering one-quarter of the world’s trade and one-quarter of global GDP. She said 'Ultimately you're tailoring the agreement to keep national interest alive but to survive in a very challenging global environment where no WTO-related laws have been left to be respected”, and added that everybody's broken the law.
