Indian, US officials begin talks on Bilateral Trade Agreement today in Washington

Indian and US officials will begin deliberations on the proposed bilateral trade agreement in Washington from Wednesday with an aim to iron out issues and give an impetus to the negotiations.

The US has stated that the pact with India will help open new markets for American goods and create new opportunities for workers, farmers, and entrepreneurs in both countries.

According to the US Trade Representative, the United States is looking at increasing market access, reducing tariffs and non-tariff barriers, and negotiating a robust set of additional commitments to ensure long-term benefits.

The US has on multiple occasions flagged concerns on widening trade deficit with India, which is USD 45.7 billion in 2024. It would look at bridging this deficit with India through the BTA.

The two have finalised the terms of reference (ToR) for the agreement.

The three-day talks assume significance as the US has paused the imposition of tariffs for 90 days.

The ToRs cover around 19 chapters, such as tariffs, non-tariff barriers, and customs facilitation.

An official said these talks would lead to the formal launch of negotiations for the bilateral trade agreement (BTA).

India’s chief negotiator, Additional Secretary in the Department of Commerce Rajesh Agrawal, is leading the team for the first in-person talks between the two countries.

On April 15, Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal had stated that India will try to close the negotiations as quickly as possible with the US.

India and the US have been engaged in negotiating a bilateral trade agreement since March. Both sides have targeted to conclude the first phase of the pact by the fall (September-October) of this year, with an aim to more than double the bilateral trade to USD 500 billion by 2030, from about USD 191 billion currently.

In a trade pact, two countries either significantly reduce or eliminate customs duties on the maximum number of goods traded between them. They also ease norms to promote trade in services and boost investments.

While the US is looking at duty concessions in sectors like certain industrial goods, automobiles (electric vehicles particularly), wines, petrochemical products, dairy, and agriculture items such as apples, tree nuts, and alfalfa hay; India may look at duty cuts for labour-intensive sectors like apparels, textiles, gems and jewellery, leather, plastics, chemicals, oil seeds, shrimp, and horticulture products.

From 2021-22 to 2024-25, the US was India’s largest trading partner.

In the last fiscal, India’s exports to the US rose by 11.6 per cent to USD 86.51 billion against USD 77.52 billion in 2023-24.

The imports were up by 7.44 per cent in 2024-25 to USD 45.33 billion against USD 42.2 billion in 2023-24.

With America, India had a trade surplus (the difference between imports and exports) of USD 41.18 billion in goods in 2024-25.

America accounted for nearly 19.78 per cent of India’s total exports and 6.29 per cent of the total imports.

(Except headline, this story has not been edited by Firstpost staff)