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The United States has threatened to prohibit Indian carriers from conducting ground handling in that country in retaliation to India not allowing foreign airlines similar operations here.The US has sought detailed filing of all ground operations from Indian carriers by July 1, multiple people aware of the development told ET.They said the two sides are negotiating the issue, which was communicated to New Delhi around 10 days ago. “Both countries are negotiating the issue. The deadline for the orders to come into effect is July,” one of them said. A government official told ET, “These are pressure tactics to intimidate India in the wake of failed trade talks.”If the US implements the ban, then it would impact operations of national carrier Air India , the only Indian carrier that operates direct flights to Washington, New York, Chicago and San Francisco.A senior Air India official said it ground handling at airports in the US. “At the airports in the US, we outsource ground handling to companies that are mandated to carry out such operations,” said the official, who did not want to be identified.The issue first surfaced after New Delhi barred all foreign carriers from carrying out ground handling on their own at Indian airports as part of the new aviation policy in 2016.The US authorities protested, saying they had signed an agreement with the Indian side that allows US-based carriers to carry out ground handling on their own.Currently, United is the only US carrier that operates flights to India while Delta has announced plans to launch a new flight to India from December this year. This is the latest salvo by Washington after it criticised India’s data localisation norms and draft national ecommerce policy, terming certain proposals as “most discriminatory and trade-distortive”, besides placing the country on its priority watch list for alleged violations of intellectual property rights.The two countries have been embroiled in a series of trade spats including the US demand for unconditional approval to its dairy exports, lower tariffs by India on ICT products and Harley Davidson motorcycles, and pricing of medical devices. The US has also withdrawn concessional tariffs available to India under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP).On the other hand, India on Thursday further delayed its decision to impose retaliatory levies on 29 imports from the US. All these issues are likely to be taken up when commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu meets US secretary of commerce Wilbur Ross on Monday. Prabhu also holds additional charge as India’s civil aviation minister. The two sides have held eight rounds of negotiations on resolving bilateral trade issues after talks failed in March last year.