US' gift to the new Indian government; omitting India Currency Manipulator

Washington: The US State Department has expressed confidence that the Indo-US relations will reach new heights with Prime Minister, Narendra Modi at the helm of affairs, in India. As the same time, the United States has taken an effective decision to omit India from the ‘Currency Manipulator’ list. Only three days ago, the United States intensified the trade war with China, by including China in this list. Against this background, the decision to omit India from the list is significant.

The United States included India in the Currency Manipulator list, in May 2018. The United States accuses the trade partner countries, of extracting trade profits, by manipulating their currency exchange rates. The Currency Manipulator list has been prepared to monitor the actions of these countries, and Japan, South Korea, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam featured in the list. The United States increased the trade pressure on India, by including it in the list, in the last year.

But the United States has delivered its good wishes by excluding India from the list, at a time when the new majority government is being formed in the country. The United States gave clear indications of its policies, including China, in the list, only three days ago. The international media were claiming that the United States has intensified the trade war further, by including China in the Currency Manipulator list. Whereas, the exclusion of India from the list indicated the intent to strengthen the trade partnership with India.

The United States had announced to increase the bilateral trade with India, taking it to $500 billion, in the times to come. Against this background, India and the United States seem to be making efforts, to increase trade cooperation, keeping the trade disputes aside. But the Trump administration has warned that despite all this, India will not be given any concessions regarding crude oil purchase from Iran. The US sanctions have cornered the countries purchasing crude oil from Iran and have been forced to stop the acquisition. Even a powerful country like China is preparing to halt crude oil purchase from Iran.

In this scenario, the United States has warned that India will not be given any concession to purchase crude oil from Iran.