New Delhi, July 29 (IANS) The US administration has said that more negotiations are needed with India to sign a bilateral trade deal, as the deadline of August 1 for reciprocal tariffs inches closer.

In an interview with CNBC, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said that Washington needs additional talks to finalise a trade agreement with New Delhi.

“We continue to speak with our Indian counterparts, we’ve always had very constructive discussions with them,” Greer was quoted as saying.

He added that India has “expressed strong interest in opening portions of their market”.

“We, of course, are willing to continue talking to them. But, I think we need some more negotiations on that with our Indian friends to see how ambitious they want to be,” said the US Trade Representative.

“The thing to understand with India is their trade policy for a very long time has been premised on strongly protecting their domestic market. That’s just how they do business,” Greer added.

He also said that China’s willingness to hold trade talks with the US is a “good sign,” but he is not expecting any “enormous breakthrough.”

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has already said that an agreement could be reached to avert the 26 per cent tariffs.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also said last week that trade talks with the US is progressing well. “I can’t comment if bilateral trade is good or bad, but we are moving forward on bilateral. Negotiations with the US, EU are progressing well,” she added.

US President Donald Trump has indicated that the US is “very close” to a trade deal with India, and it may be wrapped up soon. “We’re very close to a deal with India, where they open it up” to imports from the US, he said earlier this month.

Trump has not sent India the tariffs notice that was sent out to several countries imposing tariffs as high as 35 per cent on pure trade considerations if they did not complete a deal by August 1.

–IANS

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