India’s envoy to the US, Vinay Mohan Kwatra, discussed the path to deepening bilateral trade partnership with the leadership and members of the US House Ways and Means Committee.
“I joined a special roundtable discussion on key aspects of the US-India bilateral trade relationship with the leadership and members of the House Ways and Means Committee,” Indian Ambassador Kwatra said in a post on X.
“We exchanged views and discussed ways forward to expand and deepen the trade partnership,” Kwatra said.
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The meeting comes against the backdrop of negotiations between the two countries to finalize a temporary bilateral trade agreement.
The Ways and Means Committee is the oldest committee in the U.S. Congress and is the main tax-writing committee in the House of Representatives.
Committee Chairman Jason Smith, a Republican from Missouri, and Ranking Member Richard Neal, a Democrat from Massachusetts, were among those at the meeting.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said a trade deal with the US is “very close”, but it cannot come into effect unless India gets a competitive tariff advantage over its rival countries.
Earlier this week, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met Goyal in New Delhi to discuss the finer aspects of the first phase of the India-US bilateral trade agreement.
