2019-08-11_Business_Today

POLICY> INDO-US RELATIONS

tions between India and US are being fur-
ther strengthened by the visit of two senior
US Trade Representative officials, Chris
Wilson and Brendan Lynch, to New Delhi
in mid-July. Their talks will prepare the
ground for a meeting between Piyush Goyal
and Wilbur Ross, US Commerce Secretary,
later this year. Among other domestic pres-
sures, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
(RSS) – the BJP’s ideological parent – is also
opposed to any climbdown in India’s posi-
tion. “Our internal survey has shown that
the increase in tariffs is benefitting Indian
players,” says Ashwani Mahajan, National
Co-convener, Swadeshi Jagran Manch,
the RSS’s think-tank on economic issues.
“There is a great potential to incentivise lo-
cal players and develop them.” Mahajan has
already been critical of the commerce min-
istry’s decision not to insist on data locali-
sation. But it is still expected that the new
five-year foreign trade policy the commerce
ministry is working on, and which will come
into effect from 2020/21, will address some
of the US concerns.
On security issues, the US’s support for
India has been unflinching, especially after
the Pulwama attack in February this year

• taking India’s side in several multilateral
  forums which discussed the matter, getting
  Pakistan grilled by the global body Finan-
  cial Action Task Force, convincing China to

drop its technical objections to Masood Azhar, chief of JEM, which took

responsibility for the Pulwama killings, being termed a global terrorist.

Though trade is a separate matter, India-US differences in this sphere,

too, should not be allowed to widen too much as they could undermine

the gains made in the strategic arena, experts feel. Already, the US atti-

tude towards Russia, Iran and Afghanistan is set to affect Indian inter-

ests, which will not be compensated by the priority it gives India in the

Indo-Pacific context, in its bid to contain China.

“The risk of drift in the India-US bilateral relationship is real if both

sides fail to address their current disagree-

ments,” says a top diplomat. “There is no

doubt that Trump is deeply transactional.”

Ashley J. Tellis, Senior Fellow at the Wash-

ington think-tank, Carnegie Endowment

for International Peace, feels the Trump

administration is schizophrenic about In-

dia. “It is strongly supportive of strengthen-

ing India’s military capabilities to balance

China’s rise, but at the same time it is press-

ing New Delhi hard to change its economic

policies to benefit the US,” he says. “This

will continue as long as Trump is in office.”

India’s Trade Surplus

India’s goods trade surplus with the US has

risen from $4 billion in 2009 to $20 billion

in 2018. It crossed $10 billion in the first

five months of 2019. Adding trade in servic-

es, the total surplus would be $24.2 billion.

But the trend may change in coming years

with SpiceJet set to buy nearly 100 Boeing

737 MAX aircraft – 20 of them are likely to

WHY THE US

MATTERS

It is strategically

backing India to

strike regional

balance vis-a-vis

China and

Pakistan

It has supported

India’s bids for

leadership slot in

various multilat-

eral forums

India needs US

support for global

investments,

especially from

West Asia

48 IBUSINESS TODAYIAugust 11I 2019

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E US WISHLIST FROM INDIA

Wants change in India’s

e-commerce policy, which has

prohibited deep discounts and

exclusive sale of products on

particular platforms, thereby

affecting Amazon and Walmart

(which owns Flipkart)

DEVELOPMENTS SO FAR

India has delinked its demand for

local storage of Indian data from

its e-commerce policy

IMPACT

Will allow more space for

negotiations. But India has not

budged on deep discounts and

predatory pricing issues

Does not want

India to insist

on local

storage of

local data

Need for local storage

will be part of India’s

forthcoming data

privacy Bill

India open to

negotiations

Does not want India to set

up a public credit registry,

listing all borrowings, as this

might impact the four exist-

ing private credit registries

in India, three of which are

owned by US companies

Viral Acharya was the strong-

est proponent of a public

credit registry when he was

Deputy Governor of RBI. He

has since resigned

Will slow down

the process of

setting it up