The 2017 Trade Policy Agenda unveiled by the Trump administration indicates that it is not going to be easy for India to do business with the Trump regime. The serious troubles lie ahead on trade and investment fronts. This document ominously states that the US will come down on India’s export subsidy programmes, and push for a stricter regime for intellectual property rights and patents. The Trump team’s first report — 2017 Trade Policy Agenda and 2016 Annual Report of the President of the United States on the Trade Agreements Program — released by the Office of the United States Trade Representative categorically states that India’s “import restricting measures” result in “serious market access issues” for the US industry. The document sees a general trend of tariff increases in India, which reflects an active pursuit of import substitution policies. The March 2 document states that the US will engage India bilaterally to commit to a phase-out of its export The report also states that India’s trade and regulatory policies have “inhibited” the real growth potential of the bilateral trade that rose to $109 billion in 2015 from $4.8 billion in 1980. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, it says, could provide an impetus to the creation of a “common internal market that significantly lowers transaction costs.” While agreeing that India’s reforms on IPR are encouraging, the document says India’s new National Intellectual Property Rights Policy should protect US innovations. As per sources, the US will “come down heavily” on India and other countries with which it has trade surplus. The US has registered its biggest monthly trade deficit in nearly five years of $48.5 billion.