India fails to clinch trade deal with US – Newspaper

After a day of concentration of "Howdy, Modi" in Houston, the financial teams of the United States and India failed to close a trade agreement as both parties showed no flexibility to close the gap in their positions in certain areas.

The Hindu, a leading English newspaper, reported Wednesday that despite the presence of Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal in New York to conclude a commercial package with the United States Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer, the two sides do not managed to reach an agreement on information technology and communications (ICT) products

The announcement of an agreement was expected to coincide with Tuesday's bilateral agreement between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump. “We will have a commercial agreement soon. We will have a bigger trade agreement in the future, ”Trump said before the talks held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting.

While Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale did not share details about why a commercial package could not be concluded, three sources familiar with the negotiations said The Hindu that the prospects for an agreement crumbled as the United States wants India to eliminate tariffs (20 percent) on ICT products, but New Delhi is concerned that this may open the market to floods of Chinese technology. The United States wanted greater access to Indian markets for medical devices, such as knee stents and implants, ICT and dairy products, and sought the elimination of maximum prices.

The United States had requested the elimination of maximum prices (rationalization of the commercial margin) in medical devices and greater access to dairy products and some other categories of agricultural products.

For its part, India wanted to restore preferential access to US markets. UU. Under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program, which was revoked in early June. He had also wanted to facilitate the processes in the markets of agricultural products where he already had access (such as an easier certification of the irradiation facilities of food products) and greater access in some agricultural markets (table grapes, pomegranates, for example), the sources said The Hindu.

Posted in Dawn, September 26, 2019