The government on Friday clarified that it was in talks with the United States over a mutually beneficial trade deal. It refused media reports suggesting that India had paused the discussion after Donald Trump launched investigations into 16 countries, including India, over manufacturing policies.
“We have noted a media report regarding ongoing trade talks with US. It is denied that there is any hold off in bilateral engagement. It is reiterated that the two sides remain engaged for a mutually beneficial trade agreement,” the Union Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on Friday.
However, the ministry did not clarify if the deal would be signed by March. According to some media reports citing government sources, the trade talks with the US were paused and the signing of the deal was delayed due to the latest order of the Trump administration.
On Wednesday, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer launched a fresh round of investigations into the industrial policies of 16 economies around the world, which also included India and China.
The investigations were sanctioned under Section 301 of the Trade Act, 1974. The investigations will determine if the countries under probe were producing excess to the domestic demand and distorting market forces.
“These investigations will focus on economies that appear to exhibit structural excess capacity and production in various manufacturing sectors, such as through large or persistent trade surpluses or underutilised or unused capacity: China, the EU, Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Japan, and India,” USTR Greer had said.
The move came weeks after the Supreme Court of the US struck down the reciprocal tariffs imposed by the Trump administration under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) of 1977.
According to the media report refuted by the commerce ministry, India was not in a hurry to finalise the deal and was assessing US trade policies.
