US working hard to help Indian economy grow under Indo-Pacific plan: Pompeo

The United State is "working hard" with the Indian government to provide the country with opportunities to grow its economy as a part of the Trump Administration's Indo-Pacific strategy, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday.

"Our Indo-Pacific strategy is well on its way to bearing fruit for not only them but for the United States, and we have watched these coalitions build out. We're working hard with the Indian government to provide them with opportunities to grow their economy as well," Pompeo told reporters accompanying him on a tour to the Indo-pacific region, in response to a question.

 

Pompeo's remarks come weeks after a delegation of the US Trade Representatives travelled to India for talks on a wide range of bilateral trade issues, in particular tax and tariffs. 

Earlier in the day, India's Ambassador to the US Harsh Vardhan Shringla said in Colorado that trade between the two countries has grown to $142 billion in 2018, and is expected to reach $238 billion by 2025.

 

He said the next stage of growth will be driven by the small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in both the countries.

Specifically, the growth of SMEs in the digital marketplace present an ideal opportunity for increased India-US cooperation, he added.  

US to seek tariff rollback on agri products in today's trade talks: Report

United States will seek rollback of Indian tariffs imposed on some agricultural products such as almonds when the two sides meet on Friday, a senior Indian government source told Reuters.

A delegation led by Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia, Christopher Wilson, will meet Indian officials to try to re-start negotiations on the tariffs, which were response to the US removing some trade privileges from Indian products.

US President Donald Trump has been putting pressure on India to do more to open its markets, saying this week on Twitter that its high tariffs were "unacceptable".

The United States would seek a rollback of some of those tariffs, and India would in return seek better access to the US market for Indian farm products, said the Indian official who is aware of the agenda for discussions. He declined to be named.

India was unlikely to immediately commit to any changes to foreign investment rules for foreign e-commerce firms such as Walmart's Flipkart and Amazon, the official said. The rules have forced the two American companies to rework their business strategies for India.

Walmart told the U.S. government privately in January that India's new investment rules for e-commerce were regressive and had the potential to hurt trade ties, Reuters reported on Thursday