India & US nearing a landing point on trade deal: EAM Jaishankar

NEW DELHI: India and the US are heading towards a landing point on the trade deal that they have been negotiating for over 18 months, Union external affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Wednesday reviving optimism about the successful conclusion of the ongoing talks soon.Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had suggested earlier this month there was a deadlock in the talks, with both sides reaching a point where it would be difficult to concede any further ground. However, Jaishankar said both sides continued to iron out differences. "I think we are waiting on a few things," he said at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum.Jaishankar said India's trade minister, the US Trade Representative (USTR) and other officials are engaged in talks to move forward on the bilateral trade agreement.

"When countries negotiate with an economy like the US, obviously one part of it is what you work out between yourselves and the US, and one part of it is how do you fare vis-a-vis competitive economies," he said."And that part of it is not entirely clear because not everybody has worked out a deal. I think the trade ministers, USTR and our commerce and industry minister are working on that... My sense is that this is an issue which is heading towards a landing point."

Earlier this month, USTRJamieson Greer said the US and India were working to finalise the agreement but it was not imminent.Jaishankar also spoke about Washington's new approach to economic engagement. "...That's what the whole tariff debate is about. And the two are connected: access to the American economy and the re-industrialisation of America. Therefore, what is happening is every significant economy is getting into a negotiation with the US on this issue... In our case, we are pretty far advanced in that process of negotiation.