Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday said India and the US have finalised most elements of the first phase of the bilateral trade agreement, and negotiations are now focused on a few minor issues, “commas and full stops”.
The US team is here to hold talks on finalising the first phase of the bilateral trade agreement (BTA). The talks will take place from June 2 to 4. On February 3, both sides had announced the framework for the first phase of the BTA.
“...mostly everything is finalised. As you know, US Ambassador George said that 99 per cent of the things have been finalised. Discussions are going on about small issues, commas and full stops. While finalising, how will the legal changes that have taken place in the US be reflected in the final agreement, and what kind of changes will be made accordingly. After finalising that, I am fully confident that, with the US, we will conclude the first tranche of the BTA as soon as possible, sign it and start further discussions on how to have a more comprehensive BTA,” he told reporters here.
The US team will be led by its chief negotiator Brendan Lynch. India's chief negotiator Darpan Jain is an additional secretary in the Department of Commerce. The two sides are “proposed to finalise the details of the interim agreement and take forward the negotiations under the broader BTA on multiple areas, such as market access, non-tariff measures, customs and trade facilitation, investment promotion, and economic security alignment”, the commerce ministry has said.
On February 7, India and the US issued a joint statement finalising the contours or framework of the first phase of the bilateral trade agreement (BTA) or an interim trade agreement. Now, both sides will have to finalise the legal text for that deal. The framework reaffirmed the countries’ commitment to the broader India-US BTA negotiations.
According to that 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. It would end on July 23. In light of these changes, a meeting between the chief negotiators of India and the US scheduled for February was postponed. The two sides then 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 visiting India this week. 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 US 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. This meeting will be important, as India enjoys a comparative advantage over its competitor countries. Now, with all US trading partners facing a uniform 10 per cent tariff, the pact requires recalibration.
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