Trade rep not...
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.
“If a deal even as modest as the one being envisaged does not materialise, this visit will be primarily about optics,” said Milan Vaishnav, a South Asia expert at Carnegie, a leading think tank.
Precise details of the negotiations are hard to come by as both sides have kept a tight lid on them, and it could not be immediately ascertained what forced Lighthizer to call off the visit indefinitely. On Wednesday, it was the US demand to level the playing field for credit card companies — that India should have the same rules for US companies, Mastercard and Visa, as India’s government-backed Rupay, according to people familiar with the discussions.
A sense of despair has set in, as a result, among those involved in the trade discussions and scores of others who have closely followed them, in the last few days. Messages and texts flying between New Delhi and Washington DC have ranged in despondency from “hopes fading” to “the deal is dead”.
The more optimistic among them, however, held on to the hope that the “the top leaders”, Prime Minister Modi and Presi