India needs to assert itself strongly with the US at the bilateral trade talks: Biswajit Dhar

A top Indian trade policy expert says he has never seen the country buckle down to US demands the way it is doing now.

"We must respond strongly. We cannot accept whatever the US is thrusting upon us,” Biswajit Dhar, a well-known trade policy expert from the Delhi-based think tank, Council for Social Development, told this reporter.

India's recent decision to invoke its right under World Trade Organization (WTO) norms to impose retaliatory tariffs on certain American goods will be among the key issues discussed during trade talks with the US starting May 17, the PTI said, quoting unnamed officials.

Describing the move as a “pragmatic” one, the official clarified that India has not implemented the retaliatory measures yet but has merely reserved the right to do so in accordance with WTO provisions.

'WTO is hardly the organization it once was': Dhar

"My point is that the WTO is hardly the organization it once was. The more important negotiations are going to be at the bilateral trade talks between the two sides scheduled for May 17,” Dhar, a former Professor at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, JNU and Director General of Research and Information System for Developing Countries, a think-tank under the Ministry of External Affairs, said.

"I don’t see why India is under pressure. It is our market we are dealing with,’’ he asserted.

Raising New Delhi’s hackles, President Donald Trump said on Thursday that India has offered to eliminate tariffs on the United States as part of a potential trade deal.

“India is the highest — one of the highest tariff nations in the world. It’s very hard to sell into India, and they’ve offered us a deal where, basically, they’re willing to literally charge us no tariff,” Trump said during a roundtable with business leaders in Doha, Qatar.

India reacted swiftly, saying the talks were not complete. Foreign minister S. Jaishankar said talks were ongoing, calling negotiations between New Delhi and Washington “complicated” and “intricate.”

“These are very complicated negotiations. They are very intricate. Nothing is decided till… everything is,” he told reporters in Delhi, within hours of the US President's claims.

Just days earlier, the US and China announced a dramatic descalation after a battle of attrition in the tariff war between the world’s two biggest economies. After Beijing hit back with retaliatory tariffs and disrupted US access to rare earth metals, the US blinked first. US tariffs on Chinese goods were slashed from 145% to 30%.

India-US relations

"We need to borrow from the Chinese playbook,” Dhar said. Asked how the US could react to retaliatory tariffs by India, he said it is imperative that New Delhi put forward its points forcefully.

In the past, India has taken similar steps, including notifications submitted to the WTO in 2019 and 2021 regarding the European Union's steel safeguard measures, although those retaliatory actions have not been enforced.

India and the US are working towards a comprehensive trade agreement aimed at significantly increasing bilateral trade, which currently stands at $191 billion. The goal is to push this figure to $500 billion by 2030.

This crucial round of trade talks will take place in Washington, with a high-level Indian delegation led by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal. The four-day negotiations, starting May 17, will involve meetings with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.