Hasten slowly

There is no need for India to try to hastily conclude an early bilateral deal with the US

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COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY minister Piyush Goyal heads to Washington this week to take forward the putative bilateral trade agreement (BTA) with the US. There is a warrant to tamp down expectations of any speedy conclusion of the first tranche of this deal which in any case is targeted for autumn. External affairs minister S Jaishankar gave a hint of the challenges on Thursday when he said the ongoing negotiations are complex and far from final. His comments came shortly after US President Donald Trump, speaking at a business forum in Qatar, asserted that India had offered a trade deal with zero tariffs. “It is very hard to sell in India. India has offered us a deal where basically they are willing to literally charge us no tariff,” Trump claimed, without offering further details.