India and the US on Thursday held talks that focused on providing a more enabling work environment to companies of both countries. Chief executive officers of the various companies of both countries have identified areas of cooperation including energy, water, environment, information and communication technology, emerging technologies, digital infrastructure, promoting small businesses and manufacturing.

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The US also decided to hold a trade winds event in India in May in order to promote Small and Medium Enterprises (SME). It also seems that the impact of talks this time was slightly muted in the absence of US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross who could not make it to the talks due to bad weather back home.

India and the US are sparring over a range of issues, from India's new rules on ecommerce that affect firms such as Amazon and Walmart to data localisation and its tariffs that US President Donald Trump says are exceptionally high.

To discuss this forward, Parikshit Luthra is in conversation with Martin Howell, bureau chief-South Asia of Reuters; Kanwal Sibal, former foreign secretary; Aman Thakker, research associate, CSIS and Gurcharan Das, author.

Howell said, “Obviously there were conspiracy theories to start with that this was deliberate, but I think it really was genuine, he (Ross) was on the plane and the weather has been extraordinarily bad in the US, so I think we should take it a face value."

Sibal said, “If Ross had been here they would have been a more substantive conversation with our commerce minister and others and some of the contentious issues would have been addressed not necessarily in terms of finding solutions, but at least in clearing the atmosphere and improving the understandings between the two sides."

Thakker said, “Obviously from the policy front, there has been so much of discussion and if you look at the real numbers and actual trade, there is actually good news on that front. US-India goods trade is going up at about 16.7 percent and US exports to India is actually going at a faster rate, it is growing at 28.6 percent year on year against Indian exports to the US which are just at 10.9 percent. So, you are seeing that the main issue which is trade deficit reduction, that has been something that bilaterally has been happening. However, on the policy front issues like data localisation, FDI rules, the revocation of GSP these are all issues that have cropped up and could be going in opposite direction to where the numbers are telling us they should be going.”

Gurcharan Das said, “India’s trade relations with the US have never been easy. Now that India has a $22 billion trade surplus which is peanuts compared to $566 billion that China has, but Trump is an unpredictable person and India should not take anything for granted and the country should not sit on its high horse. I think the US is preparing for retaliation, preparing to remove India from the GSP and that would be a terrible blow to our small companies which are the labour intensive companies and will hurt jobs."