Since Trump's inauguration a little more than two months ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken a number of steps to appease the new U.S. administration and build on what analysts considered an amicable relationship during Trump's first term.
As the India File wrote in a previous edition, Tesla's entry into India gathered momentum after Modi spoke with Musk on the sidelines of meetings in February with U.S. officials in Washington.
More surprising were announcements over the past two weeks of Starlink partnerships with India's two largest telecoms service providers: billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio and Sunil Mittal's Bharti Airtel. Starlink had been widely seen as heading towards a conflict with Ambani, who has made clear his ambitions of dominating India's telecoms sector.
If Musk succeeds in India, that could help to unlock opportunities for Starlink in other emerging markets, Reuters' Nivedita Bhattacharjee writes. Read that analysis here.
But whatever Modi hopes for from his relationship with Trump or from increasingly unpredictable U.S. policies, the dance between the two could still involve some complicated footwork with unforeseen spins.
Analysts are now starting to worry about the U.S. also targeting non-tariff barriers, which Nomura economists said would make the already-chaotic approach to retaliatory tariffs "more complex and less transparent".
China and India stand out among Asian nations not just for higher tariffs, Nomura said, but for non-tariff barriers.
One potential area of friction: Data localisation.
India has pushed Amazon, MasterCard and Visa, among other big U.S. companies, to store data related to Indian transactions locally. This has become the latest sticking point in India-U.S. trade negotiations, the Business Standard newspaper reported last week.
Who are the emerging winners and losers in the trade negotiations between India and the U.S.? Write to me with your views at ira.dugal@thomsonreuters.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment