As US negotiators opened two days of trade talks in New Delhi on Wednesday, a top American official in Washington said India has put forward its strongest proposals yet for a long-pending bilateral pact.

Testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer called India a “tough nut to crack” but said the Modi government’s latest market-access offer is the "best ever" the US has seen.

"There’s resistance in India to certain row crops and other meats and products. Like you said, they’re a very difficult nut to crack. I agree with that 100 per cent," Greer told lawmakers. "But they’ve been quite forward leaning. The type of offers they’ve been talking to us about have been the best we’ve ever received, as a country."

Greer said a US delegation is in

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