Trump rules out possibility of a trade with India during his 2-day visit
Ruling out the possibilities of a possible trade deal with India during his 2-day visit, the President of United States (U.S.) – Donald Trump has said that he is saving the trade deal for a later stage.
The U.S. President is scheduled to travel to India on February 24-25, 2020. The visit gains significance as Trump is geared up to gain the support of 4 million Indians who live in the U.S., during the upcoming Presidential polls in November 2020.
Speaking on the occasion, Trump said, “We can have a trade deal with India. But I’m really saving the big deal for later.”
He further added, “We’re doing a very big trade deal with India. We’ll have it. I don’t know if it’ll be done before the election, but we’ll have a very big deal with India.”
Earlier, in a bid to strike a deal with the U.S., India had announced to partially open up its dairy and poultry markets by allowing the import of dairy products from the U.S. India is the world’s largest milk-producing nation. India has so far never allowed imports in the dairy industry to protect the livelihood of more than 80 million rural households, whose bread and butter depend upon the dairy industry.
Talking about India – U.S. trade relations, Trump also complained that U.S. is not very well treated by India. But he went ahead to say that he likes the Prime Minister of India – Narendra Modi a lot.
“We’re not treated very well by India. I happen to like Prime Minister Modi a lot,” said Trump.
Referring to Modi’s assurance of a grand reception and mega rally at Gujarat, Trump told reporters, “He told me we’ll have seven million people between the airport and the event. And the stadium, I understand, is sort of semi under construction, but it’s going to be the largest stadium in the world. So, it’s going to be very exciting … I hope you all enjoy it.”
Meanwhile, as per a report by U.S. – India Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF), a non-profit organization with the primary objective of strengthening the U.S. – India bilateral and strategic partnership, the 3rd quarter data did reflect some downfall in growth rates which is due to slowing of Indian economy. The goods and services trade performance in 3rd quarter stood at 2.3% as against 9.6% for the first two quarters of the year.
The cumulative U.S. – India trade in goods and services for the first 3 quarters of 2019 stood at U.S. $110.9 billion, with U.S. exports and imports growing at 4% and 5% respectively. The value of goods exported by U.S. in the first three quarters was U.S. $ 45.3 billion. The U.S. exports to India majorly comprised of mineral fuels, precious stones and aircraft. The imports were in tune of U.S. $ 65.6 billion.
The USISPF has projected bilateral trade worth U.S. $ 238 billion by 2025, if the current annual rate of growth of 7.5% is sustained. U.S. is India’s largest trading partner for India in terms of trade in goods and services, followed by China. While India’s trade with U.S. grew 18% in 2018, its trade with neighbouring China grew 13%.
