Trade rep not coming as Trump seeks ‘right deal’

WASHINGTON/NEW DELHI: Efforts to put together a trade agreement for announcement during President Donald Trump’s February 24-25 visit to India have suffered a setback after the US informed New Delhi of its top trade negotiator’s inability, for now, to visit the country for end-stage discussions to wrap up the deal.

India had expected to finalise the deal this week in talks with Robert Lighthizer, the top US trade administrator and negotiator who has a reputation for playing hardball. But he is understood to have conveyed his inability to travel to India in a Thursday night phone call with Union minister Piyush Goyal.

In New Delhi, diplomatic and trade stakeholders said the Narendra Modi government had some red lines on trade that it will not cross despite the US trade representative’s intensive lobbying with Goyal. India has made a full offer to the US on the proposed trade deal and the two sides were in “90% agreement” before Lighthizer decided not to go ahead with the visit.

“We have made an offer to the US with the discussions moving far beyond the usual medical devices, dairy and agricultural products. It is now the USTR’s call to make the deal possible to make the US President’s visit very successful,” said one of the key Indian officials involved in the negotiations.

New Delhi offered to help reduce the US trade deficit with India by doubling its shale oil imports from America from the current six million tonnes per annum. This move will also be in Indian interest given the escalation of political tensions in West Asia. Although the Modi government will do its utmost to showcase the Trump visit with sizeable public participation in Ahmedabad and in New Delhi, it has moved away from measuring the success of the visit only on whether the two sides close the trade deal.

Still, Indian officials are not writing off the possibility of a deal, acknowledging its importance for President Trump. They felt frustrated, at the same time, about the United States “changing goalposts constantly” — a new wrinkle was added every time a deal seemed in sight.

Failure to get a deal, it is being said, will rob the visit of everything but “optics” and, more significantly, deliver, according to a US official, a “big setback” to bilateral ties.

The two countries are working towards a limited trade agreement that addresses some basic concerns and leaves the more intractable one for a later date, such as a Free Trade Agreement.

But their failure to agree on such a small deal has been noted for how poorly it may reflect on the visit.