India and US to discuss further course of action on trade talks on Tuesday

In what can be seen as a thawing of relations, India and the US will discuss how to take forward the bilateral trade talks in a meeting on Tuesday.
 
US trade negotiator Brendan Lynch, who is the Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia, will be landing in New Delhi tonight and is set to meet commerce ministry officials led by India’s chief negotiator and special secretary Rajesh Agrawal to discuss how to proceed with the negotiations for the bilateral trade talk.
 
According to sources, this will be the first face-to-face meeting between Indian and US officials, although virtual meetings have been going on. Tuesday’s meeting will only look at the course of action to be taken on trade-related issues while other “non-trade issues” will be discussed at diplomatic levels. “Discussions continue with the US at various levels,” they underlined.
 
A visit by the US team of negotiators was originally scheduled for August 25 to August 29, which was to be the sixth round of negotiations for the bilateral trade agreement. However, the talks were put in abeyance with growing tensions between the two countries after the US imposed a penalty tariff due to India’s purchase of Russian oil, taking the total tariff to 50%.
 
In recent weeks, however, there has been a change in stance with US President Donald Trump noting that India and the US are continuing negotiations to address the trade barriers between the two nations. "I look forward to speaking with my very good friend, Prime Minister Modi, in the upcoming weeks. I feel certain that there will be no difficulty in coming to a successful conclusion for both of our Great Countries," he said.
 
In response, PM Modi also expressed confidence that trade negotiations will pave the way for unlocking the limitless potential of the India-US partnership. “Our teams are working to conclude these discussions at the earliest,” he said. However, the US has also asked G7 nations to impose tariffs on countries purchasing Russian oil.