Trump administration trade policy agenda unveiled to hit India’s export subsidy

The 2017 Trade Policy Agenda unveiled by the Trump administration indicates that it is not going to be easy for India to do business with the Trump regime. The serious troubles lie ahead on trade and investment fronts. This document ominously states that the US will come down on India’s export subsidy programmes, and push for a stricter regime for intellectual property rights and patents.

The Trump team’s first report — 2017 Trade Policy Agenda and 2016 Annual Report of the President of the United States on the Trade Agreements Program — released by the Office of the United States Trade Representative categorically states that India’s “import restricting measures” result in “serious market access issues” for the US industry.

The document sees a general trend of tariff increases in India, which reflects an active pursuit of import substitution policies.

The March 2 document states that the US will engage India bilaterally to commit to a phase-out of its export subsidy programmes to the extent that they benefit the textile and apparel sector.

The new US government has asked India to announce the subsidies it offers to some of its agricultural produce in advance and not after a bumper harvest.

The report also states that India’s trade and regulatory policies have “inhibited” the real growth potential of the bilateral trade that rose to $109 billion in 2015 from $4.8 billion in 1980. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, it says, could provide an impetus to the creation of a “common internal market that significantly lowers transaction costs.”

While agreeing that India’s reforms on IPR are encouraging, the document says India’s new National Intellectual Property Rights Policy should protect US innovations.

According to Biswajit Dhar, a trade expert and a Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Indian government will uphold American interest at any cost. The US has been already asking questions of India on some of its subsidy mechanism. (US President Donald) Trump is going to be a mercantilist and will not tolerate trade deficit.

As per sources, the US will “come down heavily” on India and other countries with which it has trade surplus. The US has registered its biggest monthly trade deficit in nearly five years of $48.5 billion.