Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal will lead a team of senior Indian officials to Washington starting May 17 for discussions with their U.S. counterparts on the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA), an official said on Tuesday.
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During the visit, Mr. Goyal will hold meetings with U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on the agreement.
The four-day talks (May 17-20) come against the backdrop of both countries exploring the possibility of an interim trade arrangement in goods to secure “early mutual wins” ahead of finalising the first phase of the trade agreement by fall (September-October) this year.
The official said the chief negotiators of both countries will hold meetings from May 19-22. Mr. Goyal will reach Washington on May 16.
The main issues that will figure in the negotiations include market access, rules of origin, and non-tariff barriers.
India’s proposal to impose retaliatory duties on certain U.S. products over American tariffs on steel and aluminium would also figure in the BTA deliberations.
Through these discussions, officials from New Delhi and Washington aim to take advantage of the 90-day tariff pause window to advance the talks.
The U.S. has suspended the additional 26 per cent tariffs on India till July 9. It was announced on April 2 to bridge the widening trade deficit.
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However, the 10% baseline tariff imposed on the countries will continue to remain in place.
To give impetus to the talks, India’s Chief Negotiator for BTA 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.
Before that in March, Mr. Goyal held bilateral meetings with Greer and Lutnick.
India and the U.S. have already initiated sectoral-level talks for the pact. The two sides are deliberating both on tariffs (related to goods) and non-tariff matters.
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 U.S. 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 U.S. has on multiple occasions raised concerns over certain non-tariff barriers being faced by American goods in the Indian markets.
The U.S. remained India’s largest trading partner for the fourth consecutive year in 2024-25, with bilateral trade valued at $131.84 billion. The U.S. accounts for about 18 per cent of India’s total goods exports, 6.22% in imports, and 10.73% 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 U.S. has raised concerns over this widening trade deficit.
The ‘rules of origin’ provision prescribes a minimal amount of materials used or processed in the exporting country to be considered as originating goods in that country.
Under this provision, a country that has inked a trade pact with India cannot dump goods from some third country in the Indian market by just putting a label on it.
It has to undertake a prescribed value addition in that product to export to India. Rules of origin norms help contain dumping of goods.
According to the 2025 National Trade Estimate (NTE) Report on Foreign Trade Barriers of the US, India maintains various forms of non-tariff barriers such as banned or prohibited items that are denied entry into India (example tallow, fat, and oils of animal origin); items that require a non-automatic import licence (example certain livestock products, pharmaceuticals, certain chemicals, certain IT products); and items that are importable only by government trading monopolies and are subject to cabinet approval regarding import timing and quantity (example corn under a tariff-rate quota).
Indian exporters, too, face these barriers in countries like the U.S. and China.
Published – May 13, 2025 06:16 pm IST