Ross was speaking at the Trade Winds Forum and Trade Mission. He is accompanying a delegation of over 100 American businesses.
US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross accused India of imposing restrictive trade policies that burden foreign companies, echoing President Donald Trump’s aggressive stance on the subject and his frequent complaints about tariffs on Harley-Davidson motorcycles. “Our goal is to eliminate barriers to US companies operating here, including data-localisation restrictions that actually weaken data security and increase the cost of doing business,” Ross said at the ongoing Trade Winds Forum and Mission in the Capital on Tuesday. Ross, who met PM NarendraModi in the morning, said the US wanted India to eliminate trade barriers for American firms and remove restrictions related to data localisation. India insists that financial and other sensitive information about its citizens should be stored in the country.
For eg. he stated that duties on routers and switches and parts of cellular phone are as high as 20%. In starkcontrast, he said, duty on these products imported by the US from India is Zero. He mentioned that India is the 13th largest export market due to “overly restrictive” market access barriers. “The (Indian) government understands what our position is on trade issues,” US ambassador Kenneth Juster said at the event. “Currently, US businesses face significant market access barriers in India. These include both tariff and non-tariff barriers, as well as multiple practices and regulations that disadvantage foreign companies,” Ross said.
