India-US trade talks have entered a new week, while the July 9 deadline is around the corner. The Indian trade delegation team has been in Washington since last week to further the discussion.
The Indian delegation, led by chief negotiator and special secretary in the Department of Commerce Rajesh Agrawal, had been expected to conclude discussions by last Friday. However, due to ongoing disagreements, both sides are now expected to break a deal by Monday evening.
"There are certain disagreements over opening up the agriculture and dairy sectors, though India has offered tariff concessions on 90% of tariff lines. A final call will be taken by the political leadership of the two countries," one of the government sources told Reuters. Another source added that the Indian delegation could stay for another one to two days if discussions continue, the news agency reported.
The US is demanding duty concessions in both agriculture and dairy sectors. But these segments are difficult and challenging areas for India to give duty concessions to the US as Indian farmers are into sustenance farming and have small land holdings. Therefore, these sectors are politically sensitive too.
India has not opened up the dairy sector for any of its trading partners in any free trade pacts the country has signed so far.
In a recent interview with The Indian Express, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that India has defined red lines vis-a-vis its agriculture and dairy sectors that should be considered. She added that opening them up is only possible with the consent of the Department of Agriculture and there is no way the government could do anything that would weaken its domestic agriculture and farmers’ positions.
Trump last week said that they are going to sign a "very big" trade pact with India soon without providing any further details.
The two countries are also looking to conclude talks for the first tranche of the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA) by fall (September-October) this year. The pact is aimed at more than doubling bilateral trade to $500bn by 2030 from the current $191bn. Before the first tranche, they are trying for an interim trade pact. The US team was in New Delhi from June 5 to June 11 for the talks.
(With inputs from PTI)
