A team of senior officials from India will again visit Washington this month to hold discussions with their US counterparts on the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA), government sources said on Thursday.
Illustration: Dado Ruvic/Reuters
To give impetus to the talks, India’s chief negotiator Rajesh Agrawal, special secretary in the Department of Commerce, and Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch had last month held three-day talks in Washington.
“The Indian team is again going this month for the talks,” they said.
The second visit assumes significance as both countries are exploring opportunities for an interim trade arrangement in goods to secure an “early mutual wins” ahead of finalising the first phase of the proposed bilateral trade agreement by the fall of this year.
India and the US have already initiated sectoral-level talks.
During the last month’s meeting in Washington, the teams deliberated on tariffs (related to goods) and non-tariff matters.
The US has suspended the additional 26 per cent tariffs on India till July 9. Both nations want to take advantage of this window to push the trade talks.
The US, on April 2, announced an additional 26 per cent tariff on Indian goods entering the US.
But on April 9, the Trump administration announced the suspension of these tariffs in India for 90 days until July 9 this year.
However, the 10 per cent baseline tariff imposed on the countries will continue to remain in place.
India is seeking duty concessions for labour-intensive sectors like textiles, gems and jewellery, leather goods, garments, plastics, chemicals, shrimp, oil seeds, chemical, grapes, and bananas in the proposed pact with America.
On the other hand, the US wants duty concessions in sectors like certain industrial goods, automobiles (electric vehicles in particular), wines, petrochemical products, dairy, agriculture items such as apples, and tree nuts.
The terms of reference (ToRs) for the BTA have been finalised by India and the US, which include around 19 chapters covering issues like tariffs, goods, services, rules of origin, non-tariff barriers, and customs facilitation.
The US has on multiple occasions raised concerns over certain non-tariff barriers being faced by American goods in the Indian markets.
The US remained India’s largest trading partner for the fourth consecutive year in 2024-25, with bilateral trade valued at $131.84 billion.
The US accounts for about 18 per cent of India’s total goods exports, 6.22 per cent in imports, and 10.73 per cent in the country’s total merchandise trade.
With America, India had a trade surplus (the difference between imports and exports) of $41.18 billion in goods in 2024-25.
It was $35.32 billion in 2023-24, $27.7 billion in 2022-23, $32.85 billion in 2021-22 and $22.73 billion in 2020-21.
The US has raised concerns over this widening trade deficit.
