Indo-US trade below potential, restrictions should be eased:

Amid bilateral trade tensions, USIBC President Nisha Biswal said Thursday that the trade between India and the US is much below its potential, and both the sides should ease restrictions and put in an "overarching" framework.

Biswal, a former Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, is leading a delegation of the US-India Business Council (USIBC) at the Vibrant Gujarat Summit (VGS) which will begin Friday.

The US, which was a partner country for two earlier editions of the biennial investor summit, refused to be a partner this year, citing pending bilateral trade disputes.

"The biggest challenge to US-India trade relations is we have not done the hard work of creating an overarching framework for trade," Biswal, who was born and brought up in Dahod in Gujarat, told PTI in an interview.

"We do not have a trade agreement, we do not have an investment treaty, we do not even have a mini agreement," she said, adding that every time the two countries negotiate, it is highly transactional and there is no real incentive to compromise.

India announced retaliatory tariffs on 29 US products six months ago after US President Donald Trump imposed heavy tariffs on imported steel and aluminium items.

However, despite the announcement, India is the only major country which has been postponing the implementation of retaliatory tariffs.

"What, I think, the two governments have sought to do in the last few months is to take a small basket of issues that have been irritants...and tried to resolve those so that it could become a kind of mini-agreement," Biswal said.

"The issues included tariffs on steel and aluminium from Indian side and from the US side it was tariffs on ICT and the policy of price control on medical devices. Both sides wanted more market access for some of their products," she said.

"Unfortunately they have not been able to get a conclusion on that thing. Our hope was that two governments will sit together and decide this issue," she said.

The two countries should rather create a much more "ambitious framework of trade", she said, adding that "we should be best trading partners".

"While US-India trade continues to grow...it is no where near the potential of what it should be. And that really requires both sides to take significant steps to ease restrictions or access to flow of investments and flow of trade in both directions," she said.

Around 500 US companies have significant business relations with India, against 6,000 to 7,000 US companies doing serious business with China, Biswal pointed out.

Asked if the US decided not to be a partner for the VGS due to trade disputes, she said, "I can't speak for the US government, but I can say that there have been some disappointments that these issues have not been resolved."