Indian team to visit US next week for talks on trade deal

Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agarwal on Wednesday said a delegation would be visiting Washington for three-day talks from April 20 to further discuss the bilateral trade agreement (BTA) that was finalised in February.

Agarwal said the Indian team would led by chief negotiator Darpan Jain. The negotiating teams would be meeting in person after a gap of about nearly four months, though they had been engaging virtually in the meantime.

"We are looking at finalising the legal agreement, which is a logical follow-up of the joint statement released on February 7. There is a need for further discussions and follow-up engagement to take this forward," he said.

He said the US had initiated negotiations with several countries. Both countries' negotiators would sit together and discuss how several issues need to be structured and addressed.

"India and the US will work together to finalise timelines and next steps as part of the ongoing engagement," he added.

Earlier, on March 17, the government had said it would sign its proposed trade agreement with the US once a new global tariff framework being developed by Washington became clear, indicating that the timeline for the deal was linked to evolving changes in the US tariff regime.

“The US deal was to be signed in March. But tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act do not exist per se due to rulings by the Supreme Court of the US,” Agarwal had said, indicating that the March deadline for signing the deal would no longer apply.

Meanwhile, Agarwal highlighted that the India-UK trade agreement was likely to become operational in May, marking a conclusion to the long-standing trade negotiations.

Also, it is expected that the India-EU free trade agreement will be signed before the end of this year. Within the current fiscal year, the ministry hopes to implement the agreement, he added.