New Delhi: The chief negotiators of India and the US on Tuesday began a three-day round of talks here to finalise the details of the proposed interim trade agreement, an official said.
The framework for the pact was finalised in February.
The US team is led by its chief negotiator Brendan Lynch. India’s chief negotiator is Darpan Jain, who is an additional secretary in the Department of Commerce.
The talks are underway at Vanijya Bhavan here, the headquarters of the Commerce and Industry Ministry.
The two sides are looking to finalise the details of the interim trade agreement and take forward the negotiations for the broader bilateral trade agreement (BTA).
On February 7, India and the US issued a joint statement finalising the contours or framework of the first phase of the BTA or an interim trade deal.
According to the framework, the US had agreed to reduce tariffs on India to 18 per cent from 50 per cent. It had removed the 25 per cent tariffs on Indian goods for buying Russian oil and was to cut the remaining 25 per cent to 18 per cent under the pact.
But, on February 20 this year, the US Supreme Court ruled against President Donald Trump’s sweeping reciprocal tariffs, which were imposed under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
After that, the US President announced the imposition of 10 per cent tariffs on all countries for 150 days, starting February 24.
In light of these changes, the two sides met in Washington in April, when the Indian team, headed by Jain, visited America from April 20-23, 2026.
To carry forward those discussions, the US team is here for the talks, the official said.
As the tariff landscape has changed in the US, both sides may wish to revisit the agreement’s framework.
Under the agreed framework, India proposed to eliminate or reduce tariffs on all US industrial goods and a wide range of food and agricultural products, including dried distillers’ grains (DDGs), red sorghum for animal feed, tree nuts, fresh and processed fruit, soybean oil, wine and spirits, and additional products.
New Delhi has also expressed its intentions to purchase USD 500 billion of US energy products, aircraft and aircraft parts, precious metals, technology products, and coking coal over the next five years.
When the framework was agreed, India had a comparative advantage over its competitor countries, such as Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Now, with all US trading partners facing a uniform 10 per cent tariff, the pact requires recalibration.
Sources have said that it is important that India gets an advantage over its competitor nations on the tariff front in the trade pact.
As the US Supreme Court has ruled against President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, the US administration now has the option of using the Section 301 investigation mechanism to impose new tariffs.
In March, the US Trade Representative (USTR) launched two unilateral Section 301 investigations against a number of countries, including India, over excess capacity and failures to eradicate forced labour in global supply chains.
The US was the second-largest trading partner of India in 2025-26. India’s outbound shipments to the US grew marginally 0.92 per cent to USD 87.3 billion during the last fiscal year, while imports increased 15.95 per cent to USD 52.9 billion. The trade surplus declined to USD 34.4 billion in 2025-26 from USD 40.89 billion in 2024-25.
