Talks on to reduce duties on farm goods

NEW DELHI: The government has intensified efforts to iron out trade differences with the US, including addressing its concerns over price control on stents and knee implants, apart from looking at ways to lower duties on technology equipment as well as some farm products, ahead of PM Narendra Modi ’s trip to New York and Houston next week.While multiple options, including keeping some of the specialised heart stents out of price control, are being discussed, the idea is to reduce import duties on high-end IT and telecom gear so that US companies, which find high tariffs as entry barriers to a profitable market such as India, benefit. An across-the-board cut will end up helping Chinese companies which have swamped this market.On farm goods too, discussions are under way to pare some of the duties, even as the government has ruled out easing some of the norms that have been placed to check imports on religious grounds, sources told TOI. In return, the Trump administration may lower the noise against Indian exports and companies. US authorities have not just withdrawn preferential duties for some of Indian exports but also dragged India to the WTO for alleged violation of global trade rules.“We are working towards early resolution of trade issues with US... We are in dialogue with the US on a number of issues,” commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal , who has held discussions with the US authorities, said on Monday. Modi and Trump are due to meet in Houston next week.With two irritants — India’s e-commerce policy and data privacy rules — on the back burner at the moment, price control on medical devices has been a key focus area, sources said. Discussions on this issue have been going on for over two months now and some of the concerns have been addressed with the increase in prices of some of the knee implants.In case of patented stents and knee implants, the government is looking at a regime where they would be kept out of price control for up to five years. Similarly, the specialised medical devices may also get a similar benefit.