India and the US are on track to implement the first tranche of the bilateral trade agreement by mid-July, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday, a day after he met the visiting US trade negotiating team in New Delhi.
“We are moving quickly towards closing all the open doors, and I think sometime by the middle of next month or so, we should be in a position to implement a very vital first tranche of the bilateral trade agreement,” Goyal told reporters in Visakhapatnam. He was in town to speak at a national workshop on seafood exports. “It is only the first tranche of our bilateral trade agreement, which will give India preferential access to our competitors,” he said.
The three-day talks, held in New Delhi from June 2 to 4, were chaired on the US side by Assistant US Trade Representative Brendan Lynch, and on the Indian side by Additional Secretary Darpan Jain.
The visit came days after US Ambassador Sergio Gore announced that only “1%” of the proposed trade deal had not been finalized and that Washington expected to sign the agreement soon.
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A high-level US team is expected to visit India at the end of this month, led by US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Goyal said.
But this visit takes place in a new light. On June 2 – the day the latest round of talks began in New Delhi – the US Trade Representative proposed an additional 12.5% tariff on 54 countries, including India, under Section 301 forced labor investigations.
But the proposed rate for India’s competitors, Pakistan and Indonesia, is only 10% – a difference that could hurt Indian textiles, leather, rice, seafood, and agricultural products in the American market. The timing of the proposed tax, which coincided with the arrival of the US negotiating team in New Delhi, added complexity to an already complex set of discussions.
People familiar with the developments, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the talks had progressed well and an interim agreement was expected soon. They also pointed to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s remarks at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on June 4, where he expressed hope that trade negotiations would be concluded within a few weeks.
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In his weekly media briefing on Friday, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the negotiating team from the USTR held “positive and constructive” talks with the Indian interlocutors. He added that after discussions, the Indian side found that the United States was committed to moving the bilateral trade agreement forward.
A Ministry of Commerce statement issued Thursday evening confirmed that the two sides held “constructive and positive discussions across a wide range of issues covering trade in goods, non-tariff procedures, customs and trade facilitation, harmonizing economic security and other areas of mutual interest.”
The statement added: “The engagements were characterized by a spirit of cooperation and pragmatism, as the two sides affirmed their commitment to concluding a mutually beneficial agreement that enhances bilateral trade and economic relations.”
