Modi's Washington visit: US to press for end in trade row

India had blocked the deal in late July over food subsidies

The United States on Wednesday said it would press Prime Minister Narendra Modi to end his blockage of a global trade pact when he visited Washington this month, something that could dampen the mood of a trip aimed at revitalising strategic ties.

US Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Biswal said India “does itself a discredit” by blocking the trade facilitation agreement (TFA) reached in Bali last year, rekindling a dispute that overshadowed an August 1 meeting between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Modi in New Delhi.

In a conference call previewing Modi’s September 29-30 visit to Washington for a meeting with President Barack Obama, Biswal said the World Trade Organization agreement to ease worldwide customs rules would “certainly” be a topic of conversation.

“We’ve made our position very clear, which is that while we are very sympathetic to the food-security concerns the prime minister has voiced, we do believe a trade facilitation agreement is a very, very important agreement,” she said.

In late July, India had torpedoed the deal after demanding concessions on agricultural stockpiling.

Biswal said the stance “undermines India’s interests as well as the interests of...many developing countries and emerging economies”.

Top US naval officer, Admiral Jonathan Greenert, meanwhile, expressed hopes of expanding a security relationship with India, something that had failed so far to live up to Obama’s billing as “one of the defining partnerships of the 21st Century”.  He said he was hoping for “clarity” on US military sales and cooperation with India when Modi visited US.

“Some of our cooperative measures in that regard have sort of stalled,” he said at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island.

Greenert said the United States was keen to ramp up joint exercises to again include carrier and submarine operations. “We haven't done that in a little while,” he said. “I'd like to get back on that track.”

In spite of enthusiastic US rhetoric about Modi’s visit, it remains unclear what it will achieve.

A key aim will be to clear the air. Before Modi became prime minister, he was barred from visiting the United States after mobs killed more than 1,000 people, most of them belonging to the minority community , in 2002 while he was chief minister of Gujarat.

Biswal has played down expectations of quick progress on bilateral issues, not least when it comes to opening up India's civilian nuclear sector to US firms, which is hindered by their concerns about India's liability laws.

She said there were still “tough issues to be worked through” on the nuclear issue.