US President Donald Trump and PM Narendra Modi
Business talks have started again between India and America in New Delhi from today. This is the first dialogue after US President Donald Trump imposed punitive fees on India on Russian oil purchases. A high-level American trade delegation led by Brandon Lynch, auxiliary American trade representative for South and Central Asia, is meeting Indian officials, which is being described as an important guiding meeting on the future of the trade talks.
The US trade team was scheduled to come to India on August 25-29 for the sixth round of talks on bilateral trading agreement, but it was postponed by Washington for imposing 50 per cent tariff on India, out of which 25 per cent of which is a punitive fee levied on buying oil from Russia. Since then, both sides have been holding virtual meetings on weekly basis. Indian officials will include Special Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce Rajesh Aggarwal and other senior officials. Officials of Finance and Corporate Ministry will also be present in this meeting.
The rest of the issues remained to be agreed
On behalf of the US, Lynch and on behalf of India, Rajesh Aggarwal, Special Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, will lead his team in this meeting. According to Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal, talks are going on at many levels. Trump’s advisor Peter Navarro also attacked India on Monday. He had said that New Delhi is trying to make a deal. Overall, the atmosphere is a bit tense, but the expectation of negotiation still remains. The leaders of the two countries are looking eager to make an agreement, but some issues are still yet to be agreed.
Reduction in trade with America
According to data released by the Ministry of Trade on Monday, India’s exports to the US declined from $ 8.01 billion to $ 6.86 billion in August. An official says that both sides were virtually negotiating, but the conversation could not move forward because “the atmosphere was not favorable. America is pressurizing India to reduce oil purchases from Russia as it claims that it is helping to raise funds for war with Ukraine.