India, US Very Close To Trade Deal, Says US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau

 India and the US are “very, very close” to signing the trade deal and need to get over “that last hurdle”, US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said on Tuesday.

Landau said that India and the US have been negotiating for months and it was important for the two sides to “reach some closure” and move on with the many other issues on the agenda.

“We are very aware of India’s importance on the world stage. I think it is very important to get a final resolution of that trade deal. We have been talking now for months that we are very close, and I think we are very close. But we have to get over that last hurdle,” Landau told reporters on the sidelines of the SelectUSA Investment Summit at National Harbour in Maryland near here.

“I don’t have any huge inside information to provide on when that is coming, but I can just reiterate that I believe that we are very, very close,” said Landau, who recently visited India.

“I think ultimately it’s important that we reach some closure on that and we finally sign it and move on with the many other issues on our agenda,” he said.

“I think there’s no question that India is one of the great powers of the world. India now has the greatest population in the world. And, India has incredible potential, economic potential, but I think, frankly, for many decades it was not fully realised because of (the) economic models that India chose to pursue.

“But I think India is now poised to have massive economic development and to lift many hundreds of millions of people out of poverty,” Landau said.

India and the US announced the framework of the bilateral trade agreement on February 2 and released the text of the deal on February 7. Indian negotiators were in the US last month for discussions on the trade agreement.

India is seeking preferential access to the US markets as part of the agreement, as the two countries eye the target of achieving bilateral trade of USD 500 billion by 2030.

According to that framework, the US had agreed to reduce tariffs on India to 18 per cent, from 50 per cent. It had removed the 25 per cent tariffs on Indian goods for buying Russian oil and was to cut the remaining 25 per cent to 18 per cent under the pact.

But on February 20, the US Supreme Court ruled against Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which were imposed under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).

In the wake of the Supreme Court order, India is seeking to recalibrate and redraft the agreement to ensure that its interests are protected under the new global tariff framework.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)