India, US Likely To Announce First Set Of Trade Agreements Soon: Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal

The United States (US) and India are likely to announce the first set of a comprehensive trade deal in the days to come as the Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal on Monday (21 October) said that the issues between the two major economies have been “almost resolved”, reports Hindu Businessline.

Goyal also shared that the two sides were now aiming at a larger engagement in the coming days which could lead to a much larger bilateral trade deal. He was speaking at the Annual India Leadership Summit organised by the US India Strategic Partnership Forum.

Goyal went on to inform the audiences that the deal could not be finalised during Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi's visit to the United States (US) as the US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer had been busy negotiating with the Japanese and Chinese representatives.

“We both believe that India and the US should look at a much larger engagement in the coming days, possibly leading to the announcement of a bilateral agreement that will go beyond the mere tinkering that we are doing at present,” he said.

It should be noted that the bilateral trade between India and the US is expected to rise to $238 billion from the current $90 billion by 2025.