Deal or No Deal: India, US Embark on 3-Day Trade Pact Marathon

India and the United States will hold their first face-to-face trade talks in Washington next week, a major milestone towards a comprehensive Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA). The Indian team, headed by chief negotiator Rajesh Agrawal, will start three days of discussions with US officials on April 23. This session comes after the finalization of a 19-chapter framework on major areas like tariffs, non-tariff barriers, customs facilitation, rules of origin, and regulatory issues.

 

The trip follows a 90-day tariff hiatus on new US tariffs, creating a limited window for the two sides to settle their differences and possibly negotiate an interim accord by July 9. Delicate areas such as agriculture, intellectual property, and visa systems are likely to dominate the talks. The negotiations also seek to set the stage for a more comprehensive agreement, with the two nations aiming to double bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030.

 

This top-level interaction captures renewed intensity and increasing momentum in India-US economic relations, coming on the back of recent senior-level interactions in the two capitals.

 

Source: The Economic Times