‘India is coming to the table’, says White House adviser ahead of trade talks

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Sunday said that India was willing to hold negotiations with the United States on tariffs, CNBC reported.

“India is coming to the table,” Navarro said in an interview with the American news network. “Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi sent out a very conciliatory, nice, constructive tweet…and President [Donald] Trump responded to that. We’ll see how this works.”

On September 9, Trump said he was looking forward to speaking with Modi about trade in the coming weeks. Hours later, the Indian prime minister expressed confidence that the trade negotiations would “pave the way for unlocking the limitless potential” of the partnership between the two countries.

The two leaders made the statements in the backdrop of strained ties between New Delhi and Washington, mainly because of Trump having imposed so-called reciprocal tariffs on Indian goods and punitive levies for purchasing Russian oil amid the Ukraine war.

On Tuesday, a trade team from the United States, led by Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch, is expected to hold talks with Indian commerce ministry officials for a trade deal, The Indian Express reported.

Negotiators from India and the US had completed a fifth round of trade talks in Washington in July. However, talks between the two countries had subsequently been stalled after the United States’...

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