US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said on Tuesday that India and the US are “very close” to signing the trade deal and need to get past “that last hurdle”. Noting that India is “one of the world’s great powers”, the official said it was important for the two countries to reach an end to the trade agreement.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Select US Investment Summit in National Harbor, Maryland, Landau said India and the US have been negotiating for months and it is important for both sides to “come to some conclusions” and move forward on several other issues on the agenda, news agency PTI reported.
He reiterated India’s importance at the global level and said both countries needed to cross the “final hurdle,” without providing specific information.
“I don’t have any huge inside information to offer on when that will happen, but I can only reiterate that I think we are very close,” said Landau, who recently visited India.
Speaking about India’s importance, Landau said there is “no doubt” that India is “one of the greatest powers”. He further said that although India has great economic potential, it has not been fully realized for several decades due to “the economic models that India has chosen to follow”.
“But I believe India is now poised to achieve tremendous economic development and lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty,” Landau said.
India and the United States announced the framework of the bilateral trade agreement on February 2, and released the text of the agreement on February 7. Indian negotiators were in the US last month for discussions on the trade agreement.
India is seeking preferential access to US markets as part of the agreement, as the two countries eye a goal of achieving bilateral trade worth US$500 billion by 2030.
According to this framework, the United States agreed to reduce tariffs imposed on India to 18 percent, down from 50 percent. It eliminated the 25 percent customs duty on Indian goods for purchase of Russian oil, and the remaining 25 percent was to be reduced to 18 percent under the agreement.
But on February 20, the US Supreme Court ruled against Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which were imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA).
In the wake of the Supreme Court order, India is seeking to recalibrate and rewrite the agreement to ensure that its interests are protected under the new global tariff framework.
(With inputs from PTI)
