Piyush Goyal's US visit: Addressing differences over trade deal to be top agenda

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Commerce and Industry minister Piyush Goyal, who on November 12 embarked on a three-day visit to USA, is expected to discuss tariff and market access issues.

"The Minister and Lighthizer (Robert Lighthizer his US counterpart) would hold a bilateral meeting on November 13 in which outstanding bilateral issues would be discussed and both are expected to arrive at a shared understanding that would benefit both sides," a senior Commerce Ministry official told Moneycontrol.

The minister would be attending the BRICS Trade Ministers meet in Brazil on November 11 and is also scheduled to hold an interaction with business and industry representatives in New York on November 14.

The US has so far been vocal about its demand that India should lessen  restrictions on market access for US medical device manufacturers and solar panels.

The official also said that India and US would have by now announced a trade package earlier but the United States Trade Representative Lighthizer was pre-occupied with other trade negotiations with Japan and China.

This is primarily why the finalisation of the trade package got delayed. However, the broad contours of the deal have been sorted," the official said.

In September, US President Donald Trump had said that America will soon have a trade deal with India to boost economic ties between India and US.

India is demanding exemption from high duties imposed by the US on certain steel and aluminium products, resumption of export benefits to certain domestic products under their Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), greater market access for its products from sectors, including agriculture, automobile, auto components and engineering.

Last month, India and the US failed to announce a limited trade deal in New York during the meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump, due to still prevailing differences over the package including access Washington has sought to Indian markets for medical devices, such as stents and knee implants, information and communications technology (ICT) products and dairy products with the removal of price caps.

Trade tensions between India and the US have been rising with President Donald Trump championing his 'America First' policy, complaining that tariffs imposed by New Delhi on American products were "no longer acceptable" to his country.