Market access, intellectual property rights and, with President Donald Trump in office, trade deficit are the thorniest issues facing the two sides despite their growing ties, and the annual meeting of the US-India bilateral Trade Policy Forum (TPF), a platform for airing them, was going to be anything but testy. Prabhu sought to play down the differences writing in a Tweet, “Had +ve (positive) discussions with Amb Lighthizer (US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who has the rank of ambassador). “Despite differences over minor issues, alignment on capturing the huge potential of bilateral trade.”Americans were somewhat less diplomatic. It added that Lighthizer, the trade representative, “expressed concern about the $29.6 billion US trade deficit with India, urging the Indian delegation to further liberalize the Indian economy to facilitate American exports.”Had +ve discussions with Amb Lighthizer. But after registering their standard position on all the standard issues, they conceded, there was a need to accept the differences, to begin with.

Source: Hindustan Times October 27, 2017 05:48 UTC