New Delhi: With a team of US officials expecting to visit India next month for trade talks, there is a possibility that the two countries may agree on an interim trade pact by June 25, sources said.
“Talks are moving. Things are on track,” they said.
India’s chief negotiator, Special Secretary in the Department of Commerce Rajesh Agrawal, concluded his four-day visit to Washington last week. He held talks with his US counterpart on the proposed agreement.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal was also in Washington last week to give an impetus to trade talks. He met with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick twice during his visit.
Both sides are looking at an interim trade deal before the first tranche of the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA) as the USA’s 26 per cent reciprocal tariff on India is suspended till July 9 this year. It was imposed by the US on April 2. However, Indian goods still attract the 10 per cent baseline tariff imposed by America.
In the interim trade deal, New Delhi is pushing for full exemption from the 26 per cent reciprocal tariff on domestic goods.
Both countries have fixed a deadline to conclude the first phase of the proposed BTA by the fall (September-October) of this year.
The US remained India’s largest trading partner for the fourth consecutive year in 2024-25, with bilateral trade valued at USD 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 USD 41.18 billion in goods in 2024-25. It was USD 35.32 billion in 2023-24, USD 27.7 billion in 2022-23, USD 32.85 billion in 2021-22 and USD 22.73 billion in 2020-21. The US has raised concerns over this widening trade deficit.
The two trading partners look to more than double bilateral trade to USD 500 billion by 2030.
According to a report by the finance ministry, a successful US-India bilateral trade agreement could flip current headwinds into tailwinds, opening up new market access and energising exports.
To boost bilateral trade, India is seeking duty concessions for labour-intensive sectors like textiles, gems and jewellery, leather goods, garments, plastics, chemicals, shrimp, oil seeds, chemicals, 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, and agriculture items such as apples, tree nuts and GM (genetically modified) crops.
While the import of GM crops from the US continues to remain a non-starter due to regulatory norms in India, New Delhi is open to import non-GM products like Alpha alpha hay (a kind of cattle feed).
