Modi, Trump agree to sort out trade disputes

Osaka, June 28

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump today “aired” their concerns over bilateral trade disputes and agreed for an early meeting of their commerce ministers to sort these out, a day after the US leader demanded withdrawal of the “very high” tariffs levied by India on American goods.

Though trade is an important part of the booming bilateral relationship, a row over market access and tariffs has escalated in recent months, leading to fears of a protracted dispute.

Yesterday, President Trump said India’s “very high” tariffs on US goods were “unacceptable” and must be withdrawn. “I look forward to speaking with PM Modi about the fact that India, for years having put very high tariffs against the US, just recently increased the tariffs even further. This is unacceptable and the tariffs must be withdrawn!” Trump said in a tweet on his way to Osaka.

“The talks with @POTUS were wide ranging. We discussed ways to leverage the power of technology, improve defence and security ties as well as issues relating to trade,” Modi tweeted after his meeting with Trump. “India stands committed to further deepen economic and cultural relations with USA.”

Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said, “There was a discussion on trade, both sides aired their concerns, spoke about the interest of the other side and what was agreed was that the trade ministers of both countries would meet at an early date and would try and sort out these issues.”

“The PM did mention in particular that we had taken some action after the Generalised System of Preferences was revoked, that was something that had already happened and now we should look forward and see how we can resolve some of these issues,” Gokhale said. “It is still to be decided whether it will be at the level of Commerce & Industry Minister and USTR or we will first have technical discussions.” — PTI

PM Holds trilateral meet with Xi & Putin 

• PM Narendra Modi held a trilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin and discussed global hot-spot issues, especially terrorism and climate change
• Modi, who is in Osaka, Japan for the G20 Summit, hosted Xi and Putin for an informal RIC (Russia-India-China) meeting here
•  “The RIC meeting was an excellent forum to discuss ways to enhance multilateral cooperation between our nations and work to mitigate challenges being faced by our planet, most notably terrorism and climate change,” PM Modi tweeted