Further concessions would be very difficult for both sides to make, although talks are ongoing, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman says

India-US trade negotiations have hit a "plateau," making further concessions "very difficult," Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday, days after Washington said a deal is not imminent.

India and the US have been negotiating a Bilateral Trade Agreement since February last year, covering market access, tariff and non-tariff barriers, digital trade, and supply-chain resilience. The finance minister's comments, despite repeated assertions by both sides in the last few months that a deal is near completion, is the first clear indication that the talks have hit an impasse.

"Both the sides have reached a plateau beyond which, giving, or taking, might be very, very difficult," Sitharaman said at the Munich Leaders Meeting in New Delhi.

She said the talks are continuing, and left open the possibility of movement if either side finds additional negotiating space, describing the proposed agreement as "hard and very rigorously negotiated."

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said last week, following talks with Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, that the two countries have identified the remaining sticking points, but that an agreement is not imminent. Among them are US demands for wider access for its farm and dairy products, a politically sensitive subject for New Delhi.

Goyal struck a more optimistic note last month, saying the deal was almost "done and dusted." He added, however, that implementation depends on India securing a competitive tariff advantage over rival exporters in the US market.

US goods imports from India reached $103.8 billion last year, compared with $45.4 billion in exports, leaving the US with a $58.4 billion goods trade deficit. Total goods and services trade between the two countries stood at an estimated $239.6 billion.

The balance is in India's favor and Washington wants to reduce the gap, Sitharaman said.

The failure to reach a deal "would not stop trade or raise tariffs" automatically, the founder of New Delhi-based think tank Global Trade Research Initiative, Ajay Srivastava, told RT. However, he said the tariff uncertainty would make pricing, contracts, and investment decisions harder.

"The bigger risk is fresh US tariffs over Russian oil purchases or alleged excess manufacturing capacity. Signing a trade deal may not remove that risk."

A new law signed by President Donald Trump last month gives him authority to impose tariffs of up to 100% on countries that continue significant purchases of Russian energy. India, the second largest importer of Russian oil, has warned that the tariffs could hurt bilateral ties.

Greer, however, has not publicly identified Russian oil as one of the unresolved issues in the trade negotiations.

(RT.com)