News Brief
India Eyes Interim Trade Deal With US Before 8 July Amid Tariff Concerns: Report
India-US Trade Talks (File Photo)
India and the United States are reportedly moving towards announcing an interim trade agreement before 8 July, with New Delhi pushing for a full exemption from the additional 26 per cent tariff imposed on Indian goods, PTI reported, citing a government official.
The US had introduced the additional reciprocal duty on 2 April, though it was suspended for 90 days until 9 July. A baseline tariff of 10 per cent remains in place.
“We are trying that the 26 per cent additional duty and the 10 per cent baseline tariff should not be there for India,” the official was quoted as saying by PTI.
Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal was in Washington trying to speed up trade talks. He had meetings with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
The technical level talks will continue until 22 May. These were started on the heels of the Ministerial discussions.
India is expecting trade-offs in more labor-intensive areas like textiles, leather, gems and jewelry, garments, shrimp, oilseeds, plastics, chemicals, and even bananas.
At the same time, the US is looking for new markets for their electric vehicles, wines, and even some industrial goods like dairy, GM (Genetically Modified) crops, and tree nuts, and petrochemicals, apples.
In order to defend sensitive industries like agriculture and even the dairy market, India is open to the idea of introducing quotas or minimum import price (MIP).
India may also explore measures such as quotas or MIP to protect sensitive sectors like agriculture and dairy.
The government is hopeful that the first tranche of the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA) can be completed by September–October 2025, aiming to boost bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030.
The US has been India’s top trading partners for the 4th consecutive year with bilateral trade expected to reach $131.84 billion in the year 2024-25.
India experienced a trade surplus with the US which reached $41.18 billion in the year 2024-25, a rise from $35.32 billion the previous year.
