AFP |
When US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sits down with India’s prime minister on Wednesday he will be trying to chart a path that keeps the Asian ally onside politically even as the two countries are at loggerheads over trade.
.@SecPompeo is in India, where he will meet with Prime Minister @narendramodi and Minister of External Affairs @DrSJaishankar to advance our ambitious shared #USIndia agenda. Read more: https://t.co/mJ3X9JpBkm pic.twitter.com/xwMqKYHK6h
— Department of State (@StateDept) June 26, 2019
As a democratic heavyweight in a region dominated by authoritarian China, New Delhi is a natural bedfellow in Washington’s effort to counter Beijing’s rise.
But President Donald Trump’s “America First” mantra and his easy resort to tariffs – in what he says is a bid to bring jobs back to the US – have complicated matters.
Ties deteriorated this month when the US ended India’s preferential trade status that allowed the Asian giant to send America $6 billion in goods duty-free every year.
The relationship is particularly tricky because of India’s own well-developed protectionism, often expressed through red tape that prevents foreign companies from competing in the huge market of more than a billion consumers, critics say.
Pompeo’s talks with Narendra Modi come ahead of the Indian prime minister’s mooted meeting with Trump at the G20 in Japan later this week, where import levies are expected to loom large.
Pompeo likely to calm tension with India before expected Trump-Modi talks https://t.co/rZs1PuUnsg pic.twitter.com/AeR3Pm35W0
— Reuters World (@ReutersWorld) June 21, 2019
Last year Washington refused to exempt India from higher steel and aluminum tariffs in an effort to reduce the US trade deficit with India, which in 2018 stood at $24 billion, according to official data.
Ties deteriorated this month when the US ended India’s preferential trade status that allowed the Asian giant to send America $6 billion in goods duty-free every year.
India retaliated with tariffs on 28 items imported from the US, including almonds, apples and walnuts products close to the hearts of voters in Trump’s rural base.
Red Tape
The bombastic US president, who frequently lashes out at trade and political partners, has dubbed India the “Tariff King”.
Read more: Trouble in paradise: India US tension increases
The US is also irked by what it sees as a growing thicket of Indian bureaucracy for US companies such as Walmart, which last year invested $16 billion in Flipkart in a major bet on the local e-commerce market.
Rising tensions between the US and Iran have also affected India, with US waivers allowing New Delhi to buy Iranian oil having expired in May. Media reports said India will press Pompeo for a new exemption.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will try to soothe increasing friction with India over trade, data flows and arms from Russia during a visit next week and instead focus on strategic ties between the two big democracies, officials said.https://t.co/HfDSezbv8K
— Deccan Herald (@DeccanHerald) June 22, 2019
Eliot Engel, the Democrat who heads the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said ahead of Pompeo’s visit that recent US actions were at odds with Trump’s promises that he would be a “true friend” to India.
Washington needs to show a “predictable, coherent, and consistent strategy,” Engel told Pompeo in a letter, and to counter a growing view that it is seeking to “coerce” India on a range of issues.
AFP with additional input by GVS news desk