State department reiterates Trump’s ‘fair and reciprocal trade’ message for India

“The United States is India’s top market for exports and U.S. companies see great opportunity in India.”

US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo is expected in New Delhi next week. File

The State Department on Wednesday reacted to India’s announcement of retaliatory tariffs on certain U.S. imports , reiterating U.S. President Donald Trump’s message of reciprocal trade and the strength of U.S.-India ties.

“India is one of our closest strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific region. The U.S.-India partnership stands upon a shared commitment to democratic values and the rule of law. As the President has repeatedly stated, the United States wants fair and reciprocal trade,” a State Department spokesperson told The Hindu via email, adding, “The United States is India’s top market for exports and U.S. companies see great opportunity in India.”

Last Friday the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) had told

The Hindu that there was no trade action to announce at the moment but that the U.S. continued to raise market access concerns with India.

U.S Secretary of State Michael Pompeo is expected in New Delhi next week for discussions prior to the G20 meeting in Osaka, Japan, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet U.S. President Donald Trump.

Among the challenges in the Indo-U.S. relationship that Mr. Pompeo is expected to discuss, are the U.S.’s preferential trade access system, the Generalized System of Preferences (India was recently taken off the beneficiary list as of June 5 ) , 5G network infrastructure, and data localisation.

Regarding 5G, the U.S. is trying to dissuade countries from letting Chinese telecom giant Huawei participate in building countries’ next generation networks citing security concerns. The U.S. is also concerned about the direction in which India’s policies with respect to data portability across borders is going and that has become one of the areas of disagreement in trade discussions.