India-US trade deal close to being final; complex set of factors involved: Marco Rubio

India and the US are close to finalising the trade deal but the entire process involves a complex set of factors that are required to be taken into account, said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ahead of his trip to India. Rubio, who is in Uzbekistan now, will arrive in India on October 20. He will meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

“We're trying to finalise a trade deal with India right now. We're very close to doing that,” he told reporters on Monday. He said the US has had to waive sanctions over the past few months because of the impact on global supplies and prices and the impact on other countries.

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He said prices are high in the US but are “really, really high in a bunch of other countries”. “We have to manage all of these things…Every country has a complex set of factors that it has to take into account. Geography is real. For some countries, it's very difficult to acquire energy from alternative sources. That's not an excuse, but all of that has to be balanced when making foreign policy,” he said.

The foreign policy of the US, of course, takes into account the war between Russia and Ukraine but it is not solely dominated by that, it has to take into account a variety of factors including its bilateral relationships with other countries and what they are realistically capable of being able to do in terms of their own energy supplies, said Rubio.

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“You also can’t unravel the economies of other countries because of one central issue, so that’s the complex part of having to balance all of this,” he said.

Rubio’s remarks come after  US Ambassador Sergio Gor said that the India-US trade is ‘very close’ and ‘will happen’. He said India-US were incredible trading partners and hence the trade deal will happen.

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Earlier this month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that the US-India trade deal talks had reached a plateau. She said any giving or taking beyond that might be difficult.