India-US trade deal: The Indian delegation’s visit to the US to negotiate a trade deal has concluded and US Trade Representative Jameson Greer has called New Delhi ‘tough crazy’. The delegation had traveled to the US for further talks on the first tranche of the India-US trade agreement, which was first announced by Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February this year.Under the proposed interim trade agreement, the US has reduced tariffs on India from 50% to 18%. In August last year, Trump had imposed a 25% reciprocating tariff on India and an additional 25% punitive tariff on India’s crude oil purchases from Russia.
On February 20, a decision by the United States Supreme Court struck down reciprocating tariffs initiated by Donald Trump under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.Following this decision, India seeks to revisit and amend aspects of the agreement to protect its interests within the emerging global tariff framework.
‘It is a difficult challenge to break India’
A 12-member Indian delegation headed by Darpan Jain, Additional Secretary in the Department of Commerce, held detailed discussions with the US side led by Brendan Lynch. According to a PTI report, the talks, which focused on finalizing key provisions of the deal, ended on Wednesday after three days.Read this also Iran War: Trump to ease sanctions or not – Why did India continue to buy Russian oil?“India is hard to get at… they have protected their agricultural markets for too long,” Jamieson Greer reportedly told the US Congress’ Committee on Ways and Means on Wednesday.He added, “As part of this deal, they want to protect a lot of it. However, there are things where I think we can find mutual agreement. DDG (Distiller Dried Grains) is a good example of this.His comments came in response to MPs’ questions regarding exports of DDG, soybean meal and ethanol. He said these specific items were included in discussions with Indian negotiators this week.“The Indian trade negotiators are in town this week. So we’ve been talking about these issues this week, including these specific items that you talked about, DDG,” Greer said.India and the United States first outlined the framework of the proposed trade agreement on February 2, after which the text of the agreement was released on February 7. As part of the arrangement, New Delhi is seeking better access to US markets, with both countries aiming to increase bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030.
