US needs more negotiations with India for trade deal, says trade representative

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. Bloomberg

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said “more negotiations” will be needed with India on a trade deal just days before an Aug. 1 deadline for higher tariffs.

Washington needs additional talks to gauge how ambitious India’s government is willing to be to secure a trade agreement, Greer said in an interview on CNBC on Monday. He acknowledged he had previously suggested a deal with New Delhi might be imminent, but highlighted that India’s historic policy of strongly protecting its market meant that reducing barriers would represent a major reversal.

“We continue to speak with our Indian counterparts, we’ve always had very constructive discussions with them,” he said.

“They have expressed strong interest in opening portions of their market, we of course are willing to continue talking to them. But I think we need some more negotiations on that with our Indian friends to see how ambitious they want to be.”

He spoke a few days after Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said he was optimistic that an agreement could be reached to avert threatened tariffs of 26%. Goyal insisted there weren’t any sticking points in the US-India relationship, and said that immigration rules — including those around H-1B visas for skilled workers — had not come up in talks.

“The thing to understand with India is their trade policy for a very long time has been premised on strongly protecting their domestic market. That’s just how they do business” Greer said.

“And the president is in a mode of wanting deals that substantially open other markets, that they open everything or near everything.”