India not in a hurry to sign trade deal with US, say Govt sources

By Naz Asghar

Feb 19, 2020

New Delhi: India is not in a hurry to sign the trade deal with the US, as it has to take a lot of aspects into account so that difficulties might not arise in future, government sources said here on Wednesday.

Their statement came after US President Donald Trump indicated that a trade deal might not materialise during his visit here.

The US President is arriving here on February 24 for a two-day state visit which is his first to India and the first stand alone visit by a US President. It would also be the fifth interaction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the last eight months.

”We don’t want to get into a situation where our trade might face problem. We are working for a win-win situation for both the countries, the sources said.

They did not agree with President Trump’s comments that the US was not treated “very well” by India.

“He and the trade establishment has always maintained that India is a high tariff country… We don’t necessarily agree with it. Our tariffs are not higher than other developing countries… Japan and Korea have higher tariffs,” they said source .

Negotiations on trade deal had intensified, and India was pressing that GSP shoud be restored. This preference was unilaterally granted and unilaterally withdrawn, though Indian exports did well despite this step, they said.

When asked about other significant deliverables, they said that if one kept into mind the kind of relationship that exists between India and the US, talks of deliverables in every meeting was not right. They, however, said some major defence deals might happen during the visit

The sources while replying to a question also once again made it very clear that scrapping of Article 370 was an internal matter of India, so India was not going to have any formal discussions on it.

Meanwhile, F0reign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said here that in his three-leg visit, Trump first arrive at Ahmedabad, then to Agra and finally to New Delhi for talks with the Prime Minister on February 25. Trade,
defence, R&D, people to people contacts are some of the important issues on the agenda of discussions.

“The highlight of the programme in Ahmedabad will be the exhibition of India’s rich and diverse culture and heritage to President Trump in a public manner that has few parallels in India or elsewhere,” he said at press briefing here.

There will be a display of rich Indian culture by various artistes and in various art forms all along the route from airport to the city, where a ‘Namaste Trump’ will be held at the newly reconstructed largest cricket stadium in the world at Motera. The event will be similar to the ‘Howdy Modi’ event which was hosted by the Indian-American community for Modi in Houston last year.

In what is being billed as the great ‘Indian road show’, as many as 28 stages representing various parts of the country are being set up along Trump’s route from the airport to the stadium in Ahmedabad.

An exhibition on the life of Mahatma Gandhi will be the highlight of the show.

Trump and his wife will fly to Agra the same day to spend an hour at Taj Mahal before the sunset.
They will fly to New Delhi the same day and next day, on February 25, the US President and the First Lady will be accorded a ceremonial welcome at the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhawan. This will be followed by a visit to Rajghat where the couple will pay respects at the samadhi of Mahatma Gandhi.

President Trump and Prime Minister Modi will hold restricted and delegation-level talks on strategic partnerships at the Hyderabad House. Later, Modi will host a lunch for Trump, following which the two leaders will address the media.

Trump will meetwith President Ram Nath Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in the evening before he leaves for the US.

–India News Stream