Piyush Goyal, the minister of commerce and industry, will accompany a group of high-ranking Indian officials to Washington beginning on 17th May to meet with their American counterparts regarding the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA).
During his visit, Goyal is anticipated to meet with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer. In order to score “early mutual wins” before concluding the first phase of the trade deal by autumn (September-October) this year, both nations are investigating the prospect of an interim trading arrangement in goods during the four-day negotiations (17th–20th May).
According to the official, the two nations’ principal negotiators will meet from 19th May to 22nd May. On 16th May, Goyal will arrive in Washington.
With these meetings, Washington and New Delhi officials hope to advance the talks by utilising the 90-day tariff halt window.
Until 9th July, the United States has halted the additional 26 per cent tariffs on India. In an effort to close the growing trade deficit, it was started on 2nd April. The 10 per cent baseline tariff that is now in effect for the nations will not be altered, though.
The meetings were sparked by three days of talks in Washington last month between Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch, special secretary in the Department of Commerce Rajesh Agrawal, and India’s Chief Negotiator for the Bilateral Trade Agreement Rajesh Agrawal.
Goyal had bilateral talks with Greer and Lutnick prior to that in March. Sector-level negotiations for the agreement have already begun between the US and India. Both tariffs (pertaining to products) and non-tariff issues are being discussed by the two parties.
In the proposed agreement with the United States, India is requesting duty discounts for labour-intensive industries like textiles in order to increase bilateral commerce.
