Trade dispute with US resolvable, says Jaishankar

S Jaishankar started his first visit to Washington as the external affairs minister on Monday saying the protracted trade dispute with the US is “resolvable in a fairly near term”.

India and the US are in advanced stages of trade discussions. There are prospects of an early resolution of the issue that has been the most contentious, spanning several governments, but more so since President Donald Trump took office and made trade a top priority for his administration.

“My sense of it is that most of these are resolvable,” Jaishankar said, referring to the trade issues under discussion. “In fact, my expectation is that much of it is resolvable in the fairly near term.”

The minister presented a positive view of the India-US ties. “I am overall very confident about both the near-term and long-term future of the relationship.”

Jaishankar arrived in Washington after a busy week at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York and a diaspora outreach event at Houston, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Trump attended “Howdy, Modi” event. An estimated 50,000 people attended the event.

Modi and Trump then held a bilateral meeting in New York on the sidelines of the UNGA. Trade and terrorism were the two top issues that were discussed. Both sides had expressed satisfaction with the talks and reported “significant progress” on the trade front.