La Jornada: New Delhi hopes for preferential agreement with Washington

Washington. The United States trade representative, Jamieson Greer, will travel to India the week following the summit of leaders of the group of the world’s seven largest economies (G-7), a senior US government official reported on Saturday, who indicated that a trade agreement was possible.

Trading goods would be one of the topics discussed during President Donald Trump’s meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at next week’s meeting in France, but a trade deal is not expected to be reached at the summit, the official said.

“We know that Prime Minister Modi is quite ambitious in terms of the role he sees for India and the importance of the relationship with the United States,” the official told reporters. “We think a potential trade deal is part of that.”

Trump would insist on reaching “a very good agreement,” the official said, adding: “We believe that a very good agreement is possible. I don’t think we will close that agreement in the G-7.”

The Group of Seven summit, which will be held from the 15th to the 17th in the French town of Evian-les-Bains, will bring together the leaders of the world’s major economies, including Trump, along with high-level delegations from other nations such as India.

Relations between New Delhi and Washington have been strained by US tariffs on Indian goods and Trump’s repeated claims – which New Delhi denies – that he intervened to end last year’s brief conflict between India and Pakistan.

However, the environment has improved and the country’s commerce minister, Piyush Goyal, said last week that the first tranche of a bilateral trade deal could be concluded by mid-July. India is pushing for preferential tariff treatment, as part of negotiations on an interim trade deal. The senior US official said Trump and Modi would have a good opportunity to take stock of the trade negotiations, but that more technical talks would probably be necessary before closing a deal.

The official noted that Canada had also been in touch for further trade talks, and that the United States welcomed Ottawa’s decision to back off on some trade measures threatened in recent days that would have affected U.S. businesses. streaming.

Regarding the trilateral free trade agreement of the United States with Mexico and Canada, talks with this nation had been frequent but informal, and no major advances were expected at the summit, the official added.