india

Updated: Sep 25, 2019 23:37 IST

Commerce minister Piyush Goyal said India and the US will announce a trade deal “very soon” and that the chemistry and bonding between Prime Minister Modi and US President Trump was reflected in the “very positive” trade talks. Goyal was speaking to news agency ANI in New York on Wednesday.

“We will announce a deal very soon… the direction is very positive. The response of the US is extremely encouraging,” Goyal was quoted as saying.

He went on to add, “The chemistry & the bonding between the two leaders (PM Modi & US President Donald Trump) are reflected in the trade talks in terms of the positivity on both sides.”

Donald trump had stated on Tuesday that he was expecting a trade deal with India soon. Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale, too, had confirmed yesterday that India and the US had made “significant progress” towards hammering out “a fair and reasonable deal”.

“We expect it to be a fair and reasonable deal, and we have laid out our requirements in the regard, and so has the US side, and it is now a matter of negotiating between the two sides on individual issues, to ensure that our requirement of access to the US markets, and for Indian companies and exporters to continue to do so, and also in new products, is secured; and we also addressed the US side’s concerns regarding what they consider to be trade deficit,” Gokhale had said, adding that the timeline for the trade deal was not discussed.

Earlier on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump had said that both sides were “doing very well” and US trade representative Robert Lighthizer was negotiating with India’s “very capable representatives and I think very soon we’ll have a trade deal”.

Indicating that this may be a limited pact for now, he had said, “We’ll have the larger deal down the road a little bit but we will have a trade deal very soon.”

People familiar with developments said the limited trade deal was expected to address immediate concerns of the two sides, including the US demand for removing price controls on medical devices and stents, greater access for American dairy products and reduction of tariffs on ICT, and the Indian demand for reinstating benefits under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), which were withdrawn in June.

Commerce minister Piyush Goyal travelled to New York for talks with Lighthizer on the trade deal while US ambassador Kenneth Juster had held extensive negotiations with commerce ministry officials in New Delhi over several days ahead of Modi’s visit to the US.