Trying to get across the finish line: US Ambassador Gor on trade deal with India

Negotiations over the US-India trade deal are 99% done and the rest should be sorted out soon, US Ambassador Sergio Gor said on Wednesday.

“The interim trade deal is in place. It is the 1% that we are trying to get across the finish line, so that the leaders can put that in stone and in law. We are very hopeful that it will get accomplished over the next several weeks, but it’s not going to be years. We are very close to getting that done,” Gor said at an event.

Officials from the US Trade Representative are currently in New Delhi for trade talks. According to Gor, the remaining bit was largely about technicalities.

According to him, India had “incredible negotiators” and that is why the deal had been tough. He pointed to how the trade deal between India and the EU had taken 19 years.

“These are massive complex deals that involve not hundreds but tens of thousands of points sometimes. Everything from mangos to technology to fuel, and we are getting there,” said Gor.

As the two countries deepen their economic engagement, Gor said there was a need to have predictable taxation and regulatory frameworks that enabled businesses to thrive. 

“We need candid and constructive engagement on export controls and technology flows grounded in trust, and we need strong intellectual property and protection to encourage innovation and investment,” Gor stressed.

Several American companies he said had approached them asking if it would be safe to invest in India, especially when they had seen their IP and research and development getting stolen in other countries.

“Our message to them is, yes, here you are able to trust, here you have a government that does care about those issues, and so that’s important to maintain,” noted Gor.

Gor pointed out that bilateral trade between the two countries had skyrocketed from $20 billion to $220 billion in goods and services over two decades, which he said reflected the “unbreakable trust” between the two countries.

“Our two-way trade is being driven by innovation and high value sectors. We see linkages not between massive global corporations, but between agile, start-ups and entrepreneurs, digital trade, advanced manufacturing and emerging tech,” he said.

The United States, according to Gor, is" laser focused" on boosting bilateral cooperation on AI development and expanding trusted supply chains for active pharmaceutical ingredients and critical minerals.

He stated that US President Donald Trump deeply valued his relationship with India and his friendship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

When asked why, despite these valued relations, high tariffs were being levied on India, Gor pointed out that India hadn't been singled out and that tariffs had been levied on many countries. He also noted that under the interim trade deal, tariff rates on India were lower than those of its neighbours.