Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: A team of negotiators, led by Commerce Secretary-designate Rajesh Agarwal, is likely to travel to Washington, DC, next week to advance discussions on the proposed India-US Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA). The high-level meetings are expected to take place over three days starting April 23, according to reports.
As per officials, the agenda for the talks has been finalised and will cover an extensive range of issues spread across 19 chapters. These include key areas such as tariffs, non-tariff barriers, rules of origin, trade in goods and services, customs facilitation, and regulatory cooperation.
This round of talks is being closely watched, with both New Delhi and Washington aiming to conclude an early harvest agreement before the fall deadline. India and the US have targeted to conclude the first phase of the BTA by the fall (September-October) of this year, with an aim to more than double the bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030, from about $191 billion currently.
Both the nations are working to sign the first tranche of a BTA to bring down tariffs before the agreed timeline of the fall of 2025 as the the terms of reference for the pact have already been finalised.
“India and US Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) terms of reference have been finalised when the US team was here. The first tranche negotiations will start virtually on the various chapters within this week, and the talks in the physical mode may start at the end of the month,” Additional Secretary, Commerce, Rajesh Agarwal said this week
“India has decided to go for a path of trade liberalisation with the US,” Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal told journalists. He said both India and the US would benefit if the trade deal is wrapped up before the fall of 2025.
“When we said we want to do a first tranche of BTA with the US by fall, that doesn’t mean we can’t do it before fall. If we end up doing the BTA before fall, then it will be good for both India and the US,” he added.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is also set to embark on an official visit to the US and Peru, beginning April 20, where she is slated to participate in multilateral dialogues to showcase India’s economic dynamism.
