Won’t seal India-US trade agreement without tariff advantage: Piyush Goyal

Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said the India-US trade deal has been finalised, but it will not come into force until New Delhi secures a clear tariff advantage over competing manufacturing economies such as Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, China, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

“Until that framework for securing a competitive advantage is finalised, we cannot bring a US deal into force. The day the US finds the appropriate tools and legal backing to provide us with that competitive advantage over our competitors, the deal is on,” he said.

The minister was addressing global business leaders at the India Global Forum’s UK-India Week 2026: Capital Frontiers conference in London. Goyal is in the UK on a three-day official visit to discuss issues related to the implementation of the India-UK Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

His remarks come after meetings with US Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer in New Delhi from June 22 to 24, during which both sides discussed key aspects of the proposed agreement, including enhanced market access, digital trade, supply-chain resilience, reduction of non-tariff barriers and greater collaboration in strategic sectors.

Explaining the rationale behind trade agreements, Goyal said an FTA was fundamentally about securing a comparative advantage over competitors to gain better access to markets. He said there was no doubt that the agreement had been reached and that only the legal and tariff-related framework remained to be finalised.

“I don’t think anyone has any doubts about our deal, which was completed on February 6. Both the US and India have confirmed it. There is always some give and take, but the broad contours were agreed at that time, and our teams have been working to finalise the fine print ever since,” he said.

Following months of tariff-related negotiations, India and the US reached an interim trade understanding in February.

Under the framework, the US agreed to reduce tariffs on Indian exports from 25 per cent to 18 per cent. India, in turn, agreed to expand market access for certain US products and deepen cooperation in sectors such as energy and defence. An additional 25 per cent levy on Indian goods linked to imports of Russian crude was also lifted.

“India was facing a 50 per cent tariff. We negotiated a deal to bring that down to 18 per cent, and the entire agreement was centred on the competitive advantage that this 18 per cent rate would give us over our neighbours and competing countries,” Goyal said.