US President Donald Trump on Tuesday reiterated his stand that India remained the "highest tariff nation" in the world. He defended the US decision to revoke the incentives for agriculture exports from India saying it was done in retaliation to India's tariff hikes.

Mincing no words, the US President said "the United States must be treated fairly and India understands that".

To understand where India-US ties stand currently, what is the road ahead and will the two countries manage to find consensus over a trade deal, Parikshit Luthra spoke to Frank Wisner, former US Envoy to India.

Wisner said: "It is going to be very important that we work for a trade deal but I am not going to underestimate the difficulties on the road to achieving that."

"We have been unable to resolve a number of a trade issues of a much smaller nature. Reaching for a large trade deal is going to encounter on both sides a number of difficulties."

"So I do not predict smooth sailing but I do believe that the Indian American relationship is always stronger when we are reaching for big objectives."

On free trade agreement:

Wisner said: "FTA is a really complicated thing. If a big trade deal is difficult to achieve then FTA is going to be even more substantial in the dilemmas that it possess."

Agriculture is an area that will be important to the US and it has to be protected on the Indian side, according to Wisner.

"Also, India doesn't have a great record of reaching FTAs and we have shown no particular alacrity ourselves, so I am not going to hold my breath, let us see how we go with the bigger trade deal, keep our fingers crossed and then keep our eyes on a longer horizon but let us get the medium term done."

First Published:Feb 25, 2020 9:05 PM IST