New Delhi, Mar 7 (PTI) The US on Friday pitched for a macro, large and grand trade agreement with India, and not ‘product-by-product’ arrangement to boost bilateral ties between the two countries.
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said India needs to open its agriculture market, emphasising that it can not be ‘off the table’ when the country is negotiating with its largest trading partner.
“Because India is so gigantic, and the US is so gigantic, the right way to do it (trade pact) is a macro, and that’s why we think we can get it done. The US is interested in doing a macro, large-scale, broad-based trade agreement with India that takes everything into account and that I think it can be done.
“…it’s time to do something big, something grand, something that connects India and the US together, but does it on a broad scale, not product-by-product, but rather the whole thing. Let’s bring India’s tariff policy towards America down,” he said at the India Today Conclave.
In the agriculture sector, he said the Indian market for agriculture has to open up, and it can not just stay closed.
“Now, how do you do that? And the scale by which you do that? Maybe you do quarters. Maybe do limits. You can be smarter when you have your most important trading partner on the other side of the table. You can’t just say…it’s off the table. That’s just not an attractive way of doing business,” Lutnick said.
The right way to do business is to put everything on the table, but do it smartly and do it thoughtfully, he said, adding that quotas or limits can be used.
During the recent visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Washington, India and the US announced their commitment to more than double the two-way commerce to USD 500 billion by 2030 and negotiate the first tranche of a mutually beneficial, multi-sector Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) by fall of 2025.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal is in Washington since Monday for the trade talks with US Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer and Lutnick. PTI RR CS RR BAL BAL
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