US Pressures India To Open Its $125 Billion E-commerce Market To Amazon, Walmart: Report

To gain full access to India’s $125 billion ecommerce market, the Trump administration is reportedly pushing for the inclusion of online retailers like Amazon and Walmart in the ongoing trade deal negotiations.

What Happened: The U.S. is advocating for a fair e-commerce environment in India as part of the comprehensive U.S.-India trade agreement discussions. The agreement is anticipated to cover a wide range of sectors, from food to automobiles, reported the Financial Times on Tuesday.

Insiders from the industry and U.S. government officials revealed that Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart Inc. WMT, which owns Indian online retailer Flipkart, raised the issue of India’s restrictions on foreign e-commerce companies.

The U.S.’s push to open up retail in the world’s second most populous country sets Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com Inc. AMZN and McMillon against Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest person and owner of Reliance group, India’s largest retailer.

India currently permits U.S. e-commerce firms to operate only as marketplaces, while Indian companies can produce, own, and sell goods directly. The U.S. considers this a “non-tariff barrier.”

According to industry executives, U.S. retailers have also repeatedly undergone product inspections by the Bureau of Indian Standards.

Why It Matters: President Donald Trump has previously taken a jab at India’s protectionist policies, calling it the “tariff king”. Even Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has criticized the country’s agricultural trade barriers and called for improved market access for American farmers.

The push for access to India’s e-commerce market also comes after a meeting between President Trump and the CEOs of Walmart, Home Depot, and Target, where the potential effects of Trump's tariff plans on the import-centric business models of these retail giants were discussed.

Moreover, Vice President JD Vance, who is currently on a tour to India, declared that the U.S. and India have recently finalized the terms for a trade negotiation. The U.S. is India’s largest trading partner, and both countries have expressed interest in expanding bilateral trade in goods and services to $500 billion—more than twice the current level.

Praveen Khandelwal, an MP from Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party and the secretary-general of the Confederation of All India Traders, told FT, "While foreign investment is welcome, it must not come at the cost of distorting India's retail ecosystem or undermining the interests of its (90 million) small traders.”