Another challenge before India is that it is moving towards this deal in the shadow of tension with Pakistan. China is a sympathizer of Pakistan. In such a situation, America can also try to take advantage of these conditions. After the Pahalgam terror attack, India’s disrespects with Pakistan have worsened. There is a lot of stress between the two countries.
Trump’s trade deficit argument is not correct
Ajay Srivastava says that the argument of President Trump’s trade deficit with India is not correct. He said that the picture changes if US weapons sales, profits of American banks and companies, free access to American tech companies in India and more than $ 15 billion spent by Indian students on studies in the US, the picture changes.
Srivastava gave an example. He said that America benefits more than India from ‘Made in India’ iPhone sold in America. Apple earns more than $ 450 on every iPhone sold for about $ 1,000 in the US, while India is less than $ 25. However, the entire price in business figures is considered to be India’s export. This increases America’s trade deficit.
According to the GTRI founder, Indian authorities have asked companies to reduce imports from China and buy more from the US. He said that instead of opposing American things, Indian officials are asking companies to reduce imports from China and buy more from the US.
India advised to move forward carefully
Ajay Srivastava suggested that India should move forward carefully. He said that being committed to comprehensive FTA in existing uncertain global conditions can harm national interests. A limited industrial goods-only pact for India would be more safe and better. He said that Washington is dominating due to giving concessions from India and remaining silent. This will help them seek more concessions from India in the FTA conversation.
India’s exports rose 11.6 per cent to $ 86.5 billion in 2024-25, while imports rose 7.4 per cent to $ 45.3 billion. This led to the trade surplus to $ 41 billion. The US administration is imposing counter -tariffs on the countries with which it has a major trade deficit.
In his meeting held in mid -February 2025, President Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to make their citizens more prosperous, stronger nations, more new and more flexible to their citizens, more new and supply chains.
He pledged to deepen the US-India trade relations to promote development which ensures fairness, national security and employment generation. For this purpose, the leaders set a new target ‘Mission 500’ for bilateral trade. Under this, the total bilateral trade is to be more than doubled to $ 500 billion by 2030.
Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal was recently in the US. This occurred after the trump-Modi’s plans to interact on the first installment of the multi-regional bilateral trade agreement (BTA) by the end of the trump-Modi. The two leaders had committed to nominate senior representatives to pursue these dialogues.