New Delhi:
An Indian official team will probably visit Washington next week to eliminate differences on certain issues before they formally launch negotiations for the proposed bilateral trade agreement between India-US (BTA), an official said.
The visit, which comes to a high level that visits India within a few weeks of an American team, indicates that the conversations for the BTA are gaining strength.
The most important negotiator of India, extra secretary at the Ministry of Trade Rajesh Agrawal, is expected to lead the team for the first personal conversations between the two countries.
The visit follows at high conversations at the official level between the two countries here last month here. Brendan Lynch, the assistant representative of the US for South and Central Asia, was in India for crucial commercial discussions with Indian officials from 25 to 29 March.
“The Indian team can visit Washington halfway through next week. This is not the formal first round of conversations between the two countries. They want to iron differences on certain issues before they launch the formal negotiations for the BTA,” said the civil servant.
The two parties would like to use the 90-day tariff break, announced by US President Donald Trump on April 9, to push the conversations.
Earlier, an official source had said that an interim trading agreement between India and the US could be completed in the 90-day tariff break announced by the Trump administration if it is a win-win for both parties.
The two countries have already completed and signed the reference conditions (Tors) to start negotiations on the pact. The tors define the goal, the scope and the framework of the negotiations for such agreements. They also outline the specific areas to be covered.
On April 15, trade secretary Sunil Barthwal had stated that India will try to close the negotiations with the US as quickly as possible.
He also stated that India decided to follow the Handels Liberalization Path with the US through this agreement.
India and the US have been negotiating a bilateral trade agreement since March. Both parties have focused on the first phase of the Pact against the fall (September-October) of this year, with the aim of more than doubling bilateral trade to USD 500 billion by 2030 from approximately USD 191 billion.
Virtual conversations are this week.
In a trading pact, two countries reduce customs tasks considerably on the maximum number that is traded between them. They also facilitate standards to promote the trade in services and to stimulate investments.
While the US is looking at Duty concessions in sectors such as certain industrial goods, cars (especially electric vehicles), wines, petrochemical products, dairy products and agricultural items such as apples, tree nuts and Alfalfa Hay; India can look at duty cutters for labor -intensive sectors such as clothing, textiles, gems and jewelry, leather, plastic, chemicals, oil seeds, shrimp and horticultural products.
From 2021-22 to 2024-25, the US was the largest trading partner in India.
The US accounts for around 18 percent of India's total exports, 6.22 percent in import and 10.73 percent in bilateral trade.
With America, India had a trade surplus (the difference between import and export) 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 expressed concern about the greater trade deficit.
To tackle the gap and boost production, the Trump administration announced superior rates on 2 April, including 26 percent on India. It was later suspended until July 9.
In 2024, the most important exports from India to the US drug formulases and biologicals (USD 8.1 billion), telecom instruments (USD 6.5 billion), Edel and Semi-Schamerige stones (USD 5.3 billion), Petroleum Products (USD), Gold and other precious metal, is precious and other precious stones (USD 5.3 billion), Petroleum Products (USD 5.3 billion). 3.2 billion (USD 2.2 billion), USD 2.2 billion (USD 2.2 billion) (USD 2.2 billion) (USD 2.2 billion) (USD 2.2 billion) (USD 2.2 billion) (USD 2.2 billion) (USD 2.2) billion).
The input includes crude oil (USD 4.5 billion), petroleum products (USD 3.6 billion), coal, cola (USD 3.4 billion), cutting and polished diamonds (USD 2.6 billion), electrical machines (USD 1.4 billion), aircraft, space vessel and parts).
(This story was not edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
