'India coming to the table': Navarro's latest as trade talks resume with US

A US team, led by chief negotiator Brendan Lynch, arrived in New Delhi to hold key talks with Indian officials on the bilateral trade deal on Tuesday.

Peter Navarro, US White House trade advisor, has claimed that India was coming to the negotiating table, even as a US team, led by chief negotiator Brendan Lynch, arrived in New Delhi to hold key talks with Indian officials on the bilateral trade deal on Tuesday.

US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC(AFP file)

"India is coming to the table. Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent out a very conciliatory, nice, constructive tweet, and President Trump responded to that. We will see how this works," Peter Navarro told CNBC in an interview on Sunday (local time).

Top updates on India, US trade talks

• Senior commerce ministry officials said India and the United States are set to hold trade talks in New Delhi, signalling a turnaround in relations after weeks of criticism from Washington and reviving hopes of progress on a free trade agreement that had been derailed by 25 per cent punitive tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump over India’s purchase of Russian oil.

• Assistant US trade representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch arrived in India and will continue talks on a Bilateral Trade Agreement with the Indian counterpart.
• India's chief negotiator and special secretary in the department of commerce is Rajesh Agrawal.
• Peter Navarro said the countries were still negotiating on the trade issue and working on ‘trade barriers’.
• “But as a practical matter, we know that on the trade side, they have the highest tariffs of any major country. They have very high non-tariff barriers. We had to deal with that, like we are dealing with every other country that does that,” Navarro said in the interview.
• Navarro also pointed out the sudden issue the US has with India buying Russian oil after 2022, when the Russia-Ukraine war started on February 24, 2022. "And by the way, there is this issue of India buying Russian oil, which it never did. You understand this. It never did that before 2022. I mean, the Indian refiners got in bed with the Russian refiners immediately after the invasion, and they're making out like bandits. I mean, it's like it's crazy stuff because they make money off of us in unfair trade. Okay, so American workers get screwed, right?" he said.
• Donald Trump's decision to bump up tariffs on India to 50 per cent last month in retaliation for New Delhi's continued purchases of Russian oil as he seeks to pressure Moscow over the war in Ukraine has strained ties between the two nations.
• But despite the diplomatic chill, the leaders of both countries said recently that they remain committed to continuing negotiations.
• The discussions come a week after Trump announced that talks would continue between New Delhi and Washington to address trade barriers. "I feel certain that there will be no difficulty in coming to a successful conclusion for both of our Great Countries!," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform last week, without offering further details.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in response, said the two nations were “close friends and natural partners” and that teams were working to conclude discussions “at the earliest”.

(With inputs from agencies)