Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: India and the United States are set clinch a proposed interim trade agreement with senior officials from the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), scheduled to visit New Delhi on June 23. These talks are aimed at finalising the first tranche of the deal, a senior government official said on June 15.
Speaking at the monthly trade data briefing, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said the USTR delegation will hold talks with Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and senior Indian officials during the visit.
“Our expectation is discussion will be centred around giving final touches to the first tranche of the deal as well as the larger Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) that has been under discussion,” Agrawal said.
According to him, the discussions are expected to focus not only on concluding the interim agreement but also on advancing negotiations on the broader BTA being worked out between the two countries.
The visit comes after a round of talks held here earlier in the month, when a USTR delegation engaged with Indian officials on various aspects of the proposed trade pact.
Following those discussions from June 2-4, the government had said both sides deliberated on trade in goods, non-tariff measures, customs and trade facilitation, economic security alignment, and other areas of mutual interest.
India and the US had earlier issued a joint statement in February, outlining a framework for an interim agreement based on reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade.
