‘India is coming to the table’: White House Trade Advisor Peter Navarro

WaSHINGTON, DC: US White House Trade Advisor Peter Navarro on Sunday (local time) claimed in an interview with CNBC that India was coming to the negotiating table.

“India is coming to the table. Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent out a very conciliatory, nice, constructive tweet, and President Trump responded to that. We’ll see how this works,” he said.

Navarro said in the interview that the countries are still negotiating on the trade issue, and are working on ‘trade barriers’.

“But as a practical matter, we know that on the trade side, they have the highest tariffs of any major country. They have very high non-tariff barriers. We had to deal with that, like we’re dealing with every other country that does that,” he said.

Navarro further highlighted the sudden issue the US has with India buying Russian oil after 2022, when the Russia-Ukraine war started on February 24, 2022.

“And by the way, there’s this issue of India buying Russian oil, which it never did. You understand this. It never did that before 2022. I mean, the Indian refiners got in bed with the Russian refiners immediately after the invasion, and they’re making out like bandits. I mean, it’s like it’s crazy stuff because they make money off of us in unfair trade. Okay, so American workers get screwed, right?” he said.

Navarro then criticised India for its tie-up with Russia and China.

“Then they use that money to buy Russian oil, and then the Russians use that to buy weapons. And then we, as taxpayers, have to pay more for this, for the defence of Ukraine. And so how can that be? And watching Modi on a stage with China, which has been its long-term existential threat. And Putin, that was an interesting stretch. I don’t think he felt comfortable doing it,” he said in the interview with CNBC.

Meanwhile, Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch is arriving in India tonight and will continue talks on a Bilateral Trade Agreement with the Indian counterpart, a government official said. US-India trade talks are scheduled to be held on Tuesday, the official added.

India’s chief negotiator and Special Secretary in the Department of Commerce is Rajesh Agrawal.

Over the past few months, India and the US have been negotiating for an interim trade deal. Still, there were reservations from the Indian side on the US demand for opening up the agricultural and dairy sectors. Agriculture and dairy are crucial for India, as these two sectors provide livelihood opportunities to a significant portion of the population. (ANI)