'Will make tremendous trade deal with India': US President Donald Trump

Days ahead of his India visit, US President Donald Trump on Thursday said two countries could make a "tremendous" trade deal. "We're going to India, and we may make a tremendous deal re," Trump said in his commencement address at Hope for Prisoners Graduation Ceremony in Las Vegas.

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Trump, accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump, is scheduled to travel to Ahmedabad, Agra, and New Delhi on February 24 and 25. Ahead of visit, re have been talks about India and United States agreeing on a trade pack as a precursor to a major trade deal. During his commencement address, Trump indicated that talks on this might slowdown if he did t get a good deal.

"Maybe we'll slow down. We'll do it after election. I think that could happen too. So, we'll see what happens," he said.

"But we're only making deals if y're good deals because we're putting America first. Wher people like it or t, we're putting America first," Trump said.

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'Bilateral trade-deal more consequential for India' 

Bilateral India-US trade in goods and services is about three per cent of US' world trade. In a recent report, Congressional Research Service (CRS) said trading relationship is more consequential for India -- in 2018 United States was its second largest goods export market (16.0 per cent share) after European Union (EU, 17.8 per cent), and third largest goods import supplier (6.3 per cent) after China (14.6 per cent) and EU 28 (10.2 per cent).

" Trump Administration takes issue with US trade deficit with India, and has criticised India for a range of 'unfair' trading practices," CRS said.

"Indian Prime Minister Modi's first term fell short of many observers' expectations, as India did t move forward with anticipated market opening reforms, and instead increased tariffs and trade restrictions," it said.

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"Modi's strong electoral mandate may embolden Indian government to press ahead with its reform nda with greater vigour. Slowing ecomic growth in India raises concerns about its business environment," CRS said.

As per a fact sheet issued by Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), trade in goods and services between two countries from 1999 to 2018 surged from USD 16 billion to USD 142 billion.

'India, US' 8th largest trading partner'

India is w United States' eighth-largest trading partner in goods and services and is among world's largest ecomies.

India's trade with United States w resembles, in terms of volume, US' trade with South Korea (USD 167 billion in 2018) or France (USD 129 billion), said Alyssa Ayres from CFR.

" United States for two years w has set out in stone pretty clearly things that y wanted to see to try to get an agreement, and it's basically n on India's doorstep on wher y want to take those steps," Rick Rossow, Wadhwani Chair in US-India Policy Studies at Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank told reporters during a conference call.

" list of US asks has been pretty static all throughout. t to say that any of se things are easy for India to do, but United States to my kwledge didn't change goalposts just because we w consider India to be a middle-income country. things that we wanted to see happen to get this trade agreement have been pretty static all throughout, matter how difficult y are," he said in response to a question.

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