Page 28 - TIE 082021

Business EYE AUGUST 20, 2021 | The Indian Eye 28

end of hope for India-US trade deal

as biden administration shows

little interest in deal

India is in “positive momentum” with respect to signing trade deals with the UK,

Australia, Canada, Bangladesh, the EU and Gulf Cooperation Council nations

Our Bureau meeting, there were no immediate com-

New Delhi ments from the commerce ministry over the
discussions that happened on Friday.
he hopes of an India-US trade pact “I had a very spirited exchange of views
are off the table for now, with the with Commerce Minister @PiyushGoyal
TJoe Biden administration conveying about how #USIndia trade can and should
to India that it is not interested in a free attain the $500 billion vision set by @Potus
trade agreement. The US has indicated that . Across our 2+ hour discussion we agreed
it is not considering a new trade agreement that our great democracies should work
with India, Commerce and Industry Minis- more closely to advance our mutual pros-
ter Piyush Goyal said on Thursday. India, perity,” Keshap said.
he said, would look at working with the US Union minister for Commerce and industry According to the data of the commerce
on market access issues to promote bilater- Piyush Goyal (ani) ministry, in 2020-21, the bilateral trade be-
al trade. India has had extensive discussions tween the US and India stood at $80.5 bil-
with the US on a limited trade deal, but it But a day after Piyush Goyal said hopes lion as compared to $88.9 billion in 2019-20.
didn’t go through. of an India-US trade pact are off the table The minister also said that had it not
But, the minister said, India is in “pos- for now, US Ambassador to India Atul Ke- been for the outbreak of the pandemic and
itive momentum” with respect to signing shap spoke to the Indian minister for over elections in Canada, a trade agreement
trade deals with the UK, Australia, Canada, two hours, discussing trade between the two with the country would have been at a more
Bangladesh, the European Union (EU), countries. While Keshap tweeted about the advanced stage.
and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) na-
tions. “UK is progressing well. Teams are
talking to each other. Line ministries are indian firms lose top spots
identifying areas in which we can quickly
close the deal in terms of early harvest, if in global ranking
possible. Instead of trying to address 11,000
(tariff) lines, we can look at their and our
areas of interest and close an early harvest eliance Industries has emerged as 74th most valued company in the world
agreement and (then) negotiate on the rest the most valued Indian compa- with a valuation of $164 billion, HDFC
of the agreement,” Goyal said while ad- Rny in a global list of top-500 non- Bank was 19 positions down at 124th with
dressing export promotion councils. state-run companies, but saw its rank- a $113 billion valuation while its parent
Similarly, Australia has shown the “high- ing slipping by three points. Ranking of HDFC was down 52 places at 301st de-
est level of engagement” and significant in- many others Indian companies, including spite a 1 per cent increase in valuation to
terest to do an early harvest agreement, he Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC Bank, $56.7 billion.
said. An early harvest deal is a precursor HDFC and Bharti Airtel, declined com- Kotak Mahindra Bank’s valuation
to a free trade agreement (FTA), in which pared with last year on the Hurun Global declined 8 per cent to $46.6 billion,
trading partners reduce tariff barriers on 500 list. which led to a fall of 96 places on the list
limited goods to promote trade. In all, 12 Indian companies made it to to 380th rank, while its larger rival ICICI
Finalizing a trade deal between India the list of the top-500 valued companies Bank saw its valuation rise 36 per cent
and the EU may not be a smooth ride, con- as against 11 in the year-ago period. to $62 billion which resulted in its global
sidering there are 27 nations in the trade Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Indus- ranking improving 48 places to 268th, as
bloc and talks have restarted after a gap tries’ valuation increased 11 per cent to per the list.
of eight years. “We will work very hard to $188 billion but ranking slipped by three There were three new entrants from
speed it up,” Goyal said. Considering the places to 57 in the rankings which use the the country in the list, including Wipro
past experiences, India has revamped its valuation on July 15 as the cut-off. (ranked 457th), Asian Paints (477th) and
strategy towards inking trade deals and will TCS slipped one position to be the HCL Technologies (498th).
not allow the “same mistakes” of the past.

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