Uncertainty over trade deal with US as August talks put off

NEW DELHI: The Trump administration has put the bilateral trade deal with India into fresh uncertainty with a meeting of officials, scheduled to start from Aug 25, postponed and no fresh date shared with authorities here.Sources said a formal communication has not been received yet, but the postponement has been communicated verbally. Govt authorities were hoping to get some clarity on the proposed bilateral trade deal during the meeting. Trump has set a deadline of Aug 27 for tariff on Indian exports to the US to double to 50%, but the latest developments complicate matters further.The US president has imposed 25% tariff on Indian exports – higher than rivals – and proposed to slap secondary sanctions, resulting in 50% tariff, citing India’s purchase of arms and oil from Russia.Uncertainty persists over the fate of additional tariff on Indian exports to the US after Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, though the US president’s change of stance by aligning himself with Putin on a peace deal in Ukraine seems to have opened up a window of hope for New Delhi.Though the Alaska talks did not help Trump achieve his declared objective of an immediate truce, he has refrained from calling them a failure. Trump said he will wait for two to three weeks before moving on secondary tariffs on other countries, notably China, the largest buyer of Russian crude.