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Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal with US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick during a meeting, in the US
| Photo Credit:
@PiyushGoyal via PTI Photo
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal met US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Monday holding discussions on an early bilateral trade deal.
“Good discussions with Secretary @HowardLutnick towards expediting the first tranche of India-US Bilateral Trade Agreement,” Goyal posted on social media platform ‘X’ early on Tuesday.
While the deadline for concluding the first tranche of the BTA fixed by the two sides is Fall of 2025 (September-October), efforts seems to be on to arrive at some understanding during the 90-day reciprocal tariffs pause period.
On April 2, US President Donald Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on most countries that have trade surpluses with the US, including India which got slapped with 26 per cent levies. But he paused them for 90 days (except a baseline tariff of 10 per cent that continues to be levied) to give time for trade deals.
Trump announced several times in the recent weeks that India had agreed to bring down tariffs on American goods to zero.
But industry and government sources say that India is not in a position to offer tariff elimination for sensitive items such as dairy and many agricultural products as well as those that could hurt the MSME sector.
“Even for items where zero tariffs or steep tariff cuts are offered to the US, the Indian industry wants that India too must get greater market access in the US for its products,” a source tracking the matter told businessline.
The US wants India to slash tariffs on a goods such as automobiles, motorcycles, alcohol, including bourbon, and other farm produce.
“There is also a possibility that the US may insist on India addressing non tariff measures too which could include diverse areas ranging from quality control measures to digital trade,” the source said.
Goyal is in Washington to hold Ministerial talks with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Lutnick on the multi-sectoral India-US BTA.
While India was one of the first countries to start negotiating a trade pact with the US, after Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a decision on the matter in their meeting on February 13, many other countries are now in talks with Washington for a similar pact.
Published on May 20, 2025
This article first appeared on The Hindu Business Line
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