01 May '25
(Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS): The US government’ talks with India on reciprocal tariffs are going great and the two countries will reach a trade agreement soon, President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House recently.
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent also said earlier this week that India could be one of the first to sign a trade deal with the United States. Both the countries agreed in February this year to start work on the first phase of a trade deal, aiming at concluding it by the end of the year and boosting bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030.
Insights
The US government's tariff talks with India are going great and both will reach a trade agreement soon, President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House recently.
Treasury secretary Scott Bessent also said earlier this week that India could be one of the first to sign a trade deal with the US.
This was the second in-person discussion since the February announcement about the talks.
Meanwhile, India’s chief negotiator and commerce secretary designate Rajesh Agrawal, along with a team of commerce department officials, held talks with his counterpart in Washington, DC, during April 23-25.
“The team discussed the pathway for concluding the first tranche of the mutually beneficial, multi-sector bilateral trade agreement by fall of 2025, including through opportunities for early mutual wins,” a statement by the department said.
Both sides had ‘fruitful discussions’ on wide-ranging subjects covering ‘tariff as well as non-tariff matters’. While ‘productive’ sectoral expert-level engagements had taken place virtually earlier this month, in-person engagements are planned from May-end.
This was the second in-person discussion between both sides since the announcement in February.
The first such discussions were held in March during assistant US trade representative Brendan Lynch’s visit to New Delhi.
The terms of reference finalised by both sides in March for the proposed agreement are likely to include around 19 chapters, covering goods, services, non-tariff barriers, rules of origin, customs facilitation, dispute settlement and regulatory issues. (Source: Fibre2Fashion.com)