New Delhi:
India and the US can announce an interim trade agreement before 8 July, with New Delhi looking for a full exemption from the extra rate of 26 percent on domestic goods, an officer said.
On 2 April, the US imposed an additional 26 percent mutual rate on Indian goods, but suspended it 90 days to 9 July. However, the basic line rate of 10 percent imposed by America remains in place.
The government official said that India’s attempt to protect its sensitive sectors can entail a quota or minimum import (MIP). Such sectors include agri goods and dairy products.
Trade and Minister of Industry Piyush Goyal was in Washington earlier this week to give an impulse to the trade discussions. He held meetings with the American trade representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer and the American trade secretary Howard Lutnick.
“The conversations are positive. Before 8 July we look at the closing of an interim deal before the first tranche. It will include goods, non-ray barriers, some service areas such as digital. We try that the 26 percent extra duty and the 10 percent baseline rate should not be for India,” said the official, said the officialor.
At the moment, the Trump government requires approval of the American congress to bring rates under the MFN rates (most favorite nation).
But the administration has the authority to remove the mutual rates imposed on a number of countries, including India.
India can look at certain US obligations at the Duty concessions for its labor-intensive sector in the first tranche of the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA). Both countries have established a deadline to conclude the first phase of the Pact against the fall (September-October) of this year to more than double bilateral trade to USD 500 billion by 2030.
The meetings at ministerial level were followed by the deliberations between the most important negotiators of the two countries, which will continue until 22 May.
Officials from New Delhi and Washington want to benefit from the 90 -day rate break window to promote the conversations. The US has suspended the extra rates of 26 percent on India until July 9. It was announced on April 2 to bridge the increasing trade deficit.
To stimulate bilateral trade, India is looking for concessions for labor -intensive sectors such as textiles, gems and jewelry, leather goods, clothing, plastic, chemicals, shrimp, oils, chemicals, grapes and bananas in the proposed pact with America.
On the other hand, the US wants concessions in sectors such as certain industrial goods, cars (in particular electric vehicles), wines, petrochemical products, dairy products, agricultural items such as apples, tree notes and GM (genetically modified) crops.
While the import of GM crops from the US is still non-starter due to the regulatory standards in India, New Delhi is open to non-GM products such as Alpha Alpha Hay (a kind of animal feed).
The US has expressed concern about certain non-tariff barriers that are confronted by American goods on the Indian markets.
Whether there will be a round of conversations on the proposed pact between the two countries, the official said: “We try to complete things as early as possible.” The US remained the largest trading partner of India for the fourth consecutive year in 2024-25, with bilateral trade with a value of USD 131.84 billion. The US accounts for around 18 percent of India’s total exports, 6.22 percent in import and 10.73 percent in the total trade in merchandise of the country.
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 this greater trade deficit.
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)
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