No FTA with India for now, says US

Not willing to tread the path taken by EU and ASEAN for market-opening trade pacts with India, the US today said it is not ready for a free trade deal with the world's second-fastest growing economy as it cannot fully open agricultural imports from American farmers.

"Quite honestly, it would be quite difficult, at this point of time for India to imagine doing that kind of a deal with the United States considering its sensitivities in agriculture," US Trade Representatives Susan Schwab said on the sidelines of India-US Summit for Small and Medium Enterprises here.

India is at advanced stages of negotiations on economic cooperation agreements with the EU, its largest trading partner, and ASEAN.

Commerce Secretary Gopal K Pillai said India's free trade agreement with the European Union encompasses "substantial" trade, but Schwab said the US wants "almost 100%" coverage.

This means, if India desires to have an FTA or economic cooperation agreement, it has to allow a zero duty market for everything, including highly-sensitive agriculture products.

Protecting its subsistent farming from cheap imports has been one of the key areas of concerns for India under the Doha Round of multilateral negotiations for a global trade deal.

Schwab said there was no comparison between her country and the EU when it comes to a free trade pact with India. "EU is not a major agriculture producer, although they do a lot of export of value-added (products). Same thing is with a lot of ASEAN countries," she said.

Reporting by Prakash Chawla