New Delhi: Negotiations for the proposed India-US trade agreement are in good progress and the two sides are expected to agree on an early tranche of the pact before July 9, a top government official said on Monday.
“We are working on the early tranche and as you are aware that there is a date (July 9), before that we would like to conclude this early tranche,” Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal told reporters here.
He said that Indian and the US teams are making visits to each other’s country for trade talks.
“We also visited the US twice. The US team also came here twice. There is good progress and we are hopeful that this will be done within the timelines,” he added.
The US on April 2 imposed an additional 26 per cent reciprocal tariff on Indian goods but suspended it for 90 days till July 9. However, the 10 per cent baseline tariff imposed by America remains in place. India is seeking full exemption from the additional 26 per cent tariff.
The US team was here from June 5 – 11 for the talks. The negotiations will continue both virtually and physically in the days to come.
When asked if the absence of the US Fast Track Trade Authority (also known as Trade Promotion Authority) could delay the proposed trade pact with India, an official said that it is up to the US authorities to decide how to navigate its local regulations for the trade agreement with India.
The next date of in-person negotiations on the BTA and its initial tranche is yet to be decided but both sides are engaging virtually without a break.
The US Fast Track Trade Authority is a special mechanism that allows the American President to negotiate trade agreements and present them to Congress for an up-or-down vote, without amendments or procedural delays.
According to think tank GTRI, since 2021, this authority has lapsed and has not been renewed and without this authority, any trade agreement negotiated by the US President is exposed to Congressional scrutiny, possible amendments, delays, or outright rejection.
On the FTA talks with the European Union, Additional Secretary in the Department of Commerce L Satya Srinivas said that the next round of negotiations will be held from July 7 in Brussels.
“There are some tracks, we are working together on this. Momentum has picked up in the talks and frequency of meetings has gone up. Earlier negotiating rounds were held every quarter, but now we have reduced the time period between rounds,” Srinivas said.
The India-EU trade pact negotiations cover 23 policy areas or chapters, including Trade in Goods, Trade in Services, Investment, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, Technical Barriers to Trade, Trade Remedies, Rules of Origin, Customs and Trade Facilitation, Competition, Trade Defence, among others.
“We have a large number of issues on which we are trying to find a convergence so that we move towards the closure of the agreement,” Srinivas said.
India and the EU have agreed to conclude their FTA negotiations – which began in 2022 – by the end of this year.
On the India-UK trade pact, he said that the agreement is getting ready to be signed. The conclusion of the pact was announced on May 6.
“Work on documentation is going on and legal scrubbing is in progress. The process will be completed within three months from the date of the completion of negotiations and we are sticking to that,” Srinivas said.
