Indian official team is likely to visit Washington next week for trade conversations

New Delhi, April 17 (PTI), an Indian official team would probably visit Washington next week to iron out differences on certain issues before formally launching negotiations for the proposed bilateral trade agreement in India and BTA, an official said. The visit, which within a few weeks to a high-level American team visiting India, comes to the talks for the BTA momentum. India chief negotiator, additional secretary in the Department of Trade, Rajesh Agrawal is expected to lead the team for the first personal talks between the two countries. The visit follows senior talks at official level held here between the two countries last month. Brendan Lynch, the assistant American trade representative for South and Central Asia, was in India for important trade discussions with Indian officials from 25 to 29 March. “The Indian team can visit Washington by mid -next week. This is not the formal first round of talks between the two countries. They would like to take out differences on certain issues before launching the formal negotiations for the BTA,” the official said. The two parties would like to use the 90-day tariff break, which was announced by US President Donald Trump on April 9 to push the talks. Earlier, an official source said that an interim trade agreement between India and the US could be finalized in the 90-day tariff break announced by the Trump administration if it is a win-win for both sides. The two countries have already finalized and signed the terms of reference (TORs) to start negotiating the treaty. The tors define the purpose, scope and framework of the negotiations for such similarities. They also set out the specific areas to be covered. On April 15, Sunil Barthwal, Secretary of Trade, stated that India will try to close the negotiations with the US as quickly as possible. He also said that India decided to follow the Trade Liberalization Road with the US through this agreement. India and the US have been working on a bilateral trade agreement since March. Both sides have targeted to conclude the first phase of the treaty by the fall (September-October) of this year, with the aim of doubling the bilateral trade by 2030 by 2030 from about 191 billion dollars. Virtual talk is underway this week. In a trade treaty, two countries reduce or eliminate the customs lights at the maximum number of goods traded between them. It also facilitates norms to promote trade in services and promote investments. While the US is looking at service abuses in sectors such as certain industrial goods, especially cars (especially electric vehicles), wines, petrochemicals, dairy and agricultural items such as apples, tree nuts and alfalfa hay; India can look at service cuts for labor -intensive sectors such as clothing, textiles, gemstones and jewelry, leather, plastic, chemicals, oilseeds, shrimp and horticultural products. From 2021-22 to 2024-25, the US was the largest trading partner in India. The US is about 18 percent of the total export of goods in India, 6.22 percent in imports and 10.73 percent in bilateral trade. With America, India had a trade surplus (the difference between import and export) of USD 41.18 billion worth of goods in 2024-25. It was $ 35.32 billion in 2023-24, USD $ 27.7 billion in 2022-23, USD 32.85 billion in 2021-22 and USD 22.73 billion in 2020-21. The US has expressed concern about the increasing trade deficit. To address the gap and increase the production of the Trump, the Trump administration announced on April 2 Veeg rates, including 26 percent on India. It was later suspended until July 9. In 2024, the most important exports of India to USA drug formulations and biological agents ($ 8.1 billion), telecommunications tools (USD $ 6.5 billion), precious and semi-precious stones (USD 5.3 billion), petroleum products (USD 4.1 billion), gold and other noble metal joiners (USD 3.8 billion), ready Dress, included, included (US billion), and products of iron and steel (USD 2.7 billion). Imports have crude oil (USD 4.5 billion), petroleum products (USD 3.6 billion), coal, Coke (USD 3.4 billion), cut and polished diamonds (USD 2.6 billion), electric machinery (USD 1.4 billion), aircraft, spaces and parts (USD 1.3 billion) and gold (US 1.3 billion). First published: 17 Apr 2025, 06:24 pm ist