India And US To Hold Their Position On Oil, Trade Issues Till The Formation Of New Indian Government

Presently on a visit to India, the United States (US) Secretary of Commerce has been holding confidence building and conflict resolution meetings with the ministers in Indian government.

As an outcome of the visit, India and US are expected to not escalate the trade, oil and tariff issues against each other until a new government is formed in New Delhi, reports Hindustan Times.

India’s primary and immediate concerns include the US decree to enforce sanctions on oil imports from Iran, one of the India’s main energy suppliers, and the withdrawal of benefits under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) programme.

Meanwhile, Washington's primary concerns include the Indian data-localisation rules which place foreign companies at a disadvantage, and trade imbalance because of tariff and non-tariff barriers.

Underscoring that India is the third largest economy and would become the largest consumer market by 2030, Secretary Ross stressed that “India is only the US’ thirteenth largest export market due to overly restrictive market access barriers. On the other hand, the US is India’s largest export market, accounting for about 20% of the total. That’s a real imbalance, and it’s an imbalance we must drive to counter.”