India and US resume crunch trade talks

India and the US have begun another round of talks aimed at finalizing a trade deal, amid New Delhi’s concerns about tariff actions that could arise from an unfair-practices probe in Washington.

After months of negotiations, New Delhi and Washington are in the final stages of concluding a tranche of a trade agreement, Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday.

A US delegation led by Assistant Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch is in New Delhi for discussions that will continue until June 4.

New Delhi’s reservations to the deal would be about “opening up agriculture without any constraints, without any limits,” Ajay Dua, a former commerce and industries secretary in India, told RT India. He also cited the issue of digital data protection, that is data gathered by foreign companies about India should be stored locally, which Western companies are resisting.

India is expected to seek shielding from Washington’s investigations of countries under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, a law that grants the US broad authority to probe trade practices and impose retaliatory measures.

There is a sense of urgency to get the talks over the line as tariffs under Section 301 are expected to come into effect on July 24 – in place of the reciprocal tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump last year, The Indian Express reported.

Underscoring India’s concerns, the US on Tuesday slapped a 25% tariff on Brazil over trade practices it decided were unfair under Section 301. New Delhi is seeking to avoid the same playbook being used against it after a trade deal is signed.

Early last year, Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi set a goal to more than double bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030. They outlined plans to negotiate the first tranche of a multi-sector Bilateral Trade Agreement by the fall of 2025.

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But Trump imposed a 50% tariff on New Delhi in August last year, half of which was for India’s purchases of Russian oil. After a broad pact was agreed upon in February this year, the tariffs came down to 18%. 

However, Trump’s tariffs were deemed illegal by the US Supreme Court in February this year, effectively scuppering the agreement.

Amid the talks over an India-US trade deal, reports say New Delhi may review the broad contours of its trade pact with the UK. India is reportedly looking at reducing the tariff concessions on Scotch whisky and some other items over steel quotas and duties in the UK, the Times of India reported.