With the first tranche of India-US Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) heading to a closure, both the countries are aiming to address the issue of reciprocal tariff in the negotiations, confirmed sources from the Ministry of Commerce on Monday.
"The trade deal has two parts, one part will take its own time, and the other part is the first tranche which can address all kinds of tariffs. We remain engaged, the discussions are on and part of an agreement that covers reciprocal tariffs should happen sooner rather than later," said an official aware of the matter.
However the Ministry has refused to put a deadline to the conclusion of the agreement negotiations. Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal on Monday confirmed that the first phase of the proposed US-India bilateral trade agreement is near closure, and assured that both the countries have remained involved actively in the discussions for the BTA negotiations for the past few months.
The Ministry of Commerce has expressed hope that the removal of 50% additional duties on several agricultural and processed food imports by the US have brought some relief to the Indian exporters and created a level playing field for them. Items like fruits and nuts, spices, tea, coffee account for more than $1 billion export from India to the US. The Trump administration recently exempted 254 products, including 229 agricultural items, from the tariffs.
Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday told exporters that the EU and the US agreement would soon get finalised, and the exporters would be able to export larger volumes. However, he cautioned that all these markets focus a lot on sustainability.
The BTA, formally proposed in February following the meeting of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump, aime to more than double bilateral trade, from the current $191 billion to $500 billion by 2030. However, there have been some headwinds as the US administration imposed a 25% tariff on Indian exports starting August 1, followed by another 25% increase days later on items like textiles, apparels, carpets as a penalty for India's continued purchase of Russian oil.