- Indian Prime Minister has met US President on the sidelines of the G-7 Summit in France.
- During the meeting,the Indian PM said that India has planned to increase imports including oil from the US and $4 billion worth of imports were already in the pipeline.
- India and the US has differences over trade imbalance between the two countries.India’s exports to the U.S. in 2017-18 stood at $47.9 billion while imports were at $26.7 billion.The trade balance is in favour of India.
- Further,the Indian PM is also expected to hold talks with the top CEOs of the energy companies in the US.The objective of the meeting would be (a)to see how India can import more oil from the US and (b)how India can invest in the energy sector in the US.
- Although trade is an important part of the bilateral strategic partnership, a dispute over market access and tariffs has escalated between India and the US.
- India has also imposed long pending retaliatory tariffs on 29 US products after US had withdrawn Generalized system of preferences(GSP) for Indian exporters.
- GSP is a preferential tariff system extended by developed countries to developing countries.It is a preferential arrangement in the sense that it allows concessional low/zero tariff imports from developing countries.
