(Image source from: The Atlantic)
President Donald Trump in a tweet on Tuesday said the United States needs to stand up to India on the trade front.
Trump said: “India has long had a field day putting Tariffs on American products. No longer acceptable!”
India has long had a field day putting Tariffs on American products. No longer acceptable!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 9, 2019
The tweet came less than two weeks after Trump’s ‘patch-up’ meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Osaka, where the two made a decision to ask their respective trade teams to meet and put right all the contentious issues.
The timing of the tweet is of import as a team from the U.S. Trade Representative’s office is scheduled to visit New Delhi later this week to hold talks with their Indian counterparts. The two teams are expected to talk over a limited trade agreement. The deal had been suspended when the U.S. decided early last month to withdraw a scheme offering duty-free entry to more than 3,000 products from India.
India then imposed retaliatory tariffs on 28 U.S. products with effect from June 16, 2019, after delaying them for a year. Those were in retaliation to the U.S. not acceding India’s request for the withdrawal of penal duties on its steel and aluminum early this year.
At the moment, the U.S. wants India to remove price restrictions on medical equipment and labeling restrictions on dairy products and also lower duties on smartphones and other IT and telecom products.
By Sowmya Sangam
