US needs more negotiations with India for trade deal ahead of August 1 tariff deadline

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said “more negotiations” will be needed with India on a trade deal just days before an August 1 deadline for higher tariffs.Washington needs additional talks to gauge how ambitious India’s government is willing to be to secure a trade agreement, Greer said in an interview on CNBC on Monday. He acknowledged he had previously suggested a deal with New Delhi might be imminent, but highlighted that India’s historic policy of strongly protecting its market meant that reducing barriers would represent a major reversal.“We continue to speak with our Indian counterparts, we’ve always had very constructive discussions with them,” he said.“They have expressed strong interest in opening portions of their market, we of course are willing to continue talking to them. But I think we need some more negotiations on that with our Indian friends to see how ambitious they want to be.”He spoke a few days after Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said he was optimistic that an agreement could be reached to avert threatened tariffs of 26%. Goyal insisted there weren’t any sticking points in the US-India relationship, and said that immigration rules — including those around H-1B visas for skilled workers — had not come up in talks.“The thing to understand with India is their trade policy for a very long time has been premised on strongly protecting their domestic market. That’s just how they do business” Greer said. “And the president is in a mode of wanting deals that substantially open other markets, that they open everything or near everything.”The US team will visit India in August for the next round of negotiations for the proposed bilateral trade agreement between the two countries.On April 2 this year, US President Donald Trump announced high reciprocal tariffs. The implementation of high tariffs was immediately suspended for 90 days till July 9 and later until August 1, as America is negotiating trade deals with various countries.India has hardened its position on the US demand for duty concessions on agricultural and dairy products. New Delhi has, so far, not given any duty concessions to any of its trading partners in a free trade agreement in the dairy sector.Certain farmers' associations have urged the government not to include any issues related to agriculture in the trade pact.India is seeking the removal of this additional tariff (26 per cent). It has also sought the easing of tariffs on steel and aluminium (50 per cent) and the auto sector (25 per cent).These issues are an important part of the trade pact negotiations.Against these, India has reserved its right under the WTO (World Trade Organization) norms to impose retaliatory duties.The country is also seeking duty concessions for labour-intensive sectors, such as textiles, gems and jewellery, leather goods, garments, plastics, chemicals, shrimp, oil seeds, grapes, and bananas, in the proposed trade pact.On the other hand, the US wants duty concessions on certain industrial goods, automobiles, especially electric vehicles, wines, petrochemical products, agricultural goods, dairy items, apples, tree nuts, and genetically modified crops.The two countries are looking to conclude talks for the first tranche of the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA) by fall (September-October) this year. Before that, they are looking for an interim trade pact.India's merchandise exports to the US rose 22.8 per cent to USD 25.51 billion in the April-June quarter this fiscal year, while imports rose 11.68 per cent to USD 12.86 billion.