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Reuters sources reported: “No breakthrough” achieved
The trade talks between officials of the two countries went on for a little over three hours. Now, all hopes are pinned on the proposed meeting of commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal with US trade representative Robert Lighthizer in Washington next month. However, the meeting dates are yet to be finalised.
India now hopes that some of the issues would be resolved when Goyal visits Washington. Officials said the talks held on Friday were focused on understanding the situation of the two countries in various disputes.
In an official statement, Commerce Ministry said, “Both sides discussed the broad contours of bilateral trade and commercial ties and agreed to continue their discussions for achieving mutually beneficial outcomes aimed at further growing the economic relationship and addressing mutual trade concerns.”
The Friday meeting was organised after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan last month. After initial Twitter salvo, Trump had announced that there would be a “very big trade deal” with India, without disclosing further.
Still, once again the US president resorted to Twitter saying high Indian tariffs on American goods are “unacceptable”. It is worth noting that foreign e-commerce companies such as Walmart that owns Flipkart and Amazon had to re-strategize business in India after the government did not commit changes in foreign investment rules for the foreign e-commerce firms
