US trade deal with India not ‘imminent’ despite ‘constructive’ Modi-Trump call, says USTR Greer

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Thursday indicated that a trade deal with India was unlikely to be reached soon, as Washington and New Delhi continue negotiations over the finer details of the long-awaited agreement.

“I don’t think there is something imminent,” Greer said in response to a query by Indian news agency ANI, adding that “we truly have identified the universe of items that are sticking points.”

His comments come just a day after President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke over the phone, a call that Greer described as “very constructive.” He also held bilateral meetings with Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, who is in the U.S. to negotiate the trade deal and to attend the G20 trade ministers meeting in Milwaukee.

Goyal, in a social media post, seemed more upbeat about the negotiations as he underscored that discussions with Greer were around the “early conclusion of a mutually beneficial interim agreement under the India-US Bilateral Trade Agreement.”

“Goyal is counting the issues already resolved, and Greer is counting the ones that remain,” Ronak D. Desai, visiting fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, told CNBC, adding that the last issues in any trade deal were the hardest.