Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Tuesday (June 23, 2026) began bilateral talks in New Delhi on issues related to the first phase of the bilateral trade agreement.
Mr. Greer is in New Delhi on an official visit for the trade pact talks.
“Warm welcome to @USTradeRep Amb Jamieson Mr. Greer, @USAmbIndia Amb Sergio Gor and their delegation to @DoC_GoI. Looking forward to productive discussions on the bilateral trade agreement between (India & U.S.),” Mr. Goyal said in a social media post on X.
Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal and India’s Chief Negotiator Darpan Jain, who is also Additional Secretary in the Department of Commerce, are attending the meeting, which is under way at Vanijya Bhawan, the headquarters of the Commerce and Industry Ministry.
The meeting followed chief negotiator-level discussions on the pact held in the national capital earlier this month (June 2-4).
Mr. Agrawal on June 15 stated that the discussions between the two Ministers are expected to be centred around giving final touches to the framework deal.
On June 17, U.S. President Donald Trump said that the two countries are “very close” on the finalisation of the trade agreement.
Earlier on June 5, Mr. Goyal said India and the U.S. are moving towards closing all the open ends of the interim trade agreement, and both sides are likely to execute the “very, very vibrant” first phase of the BTA by the middle of next month.
Both sides in February announced the contours, or framework, of the first phase of the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA). The framework was based on the 50% tariffs imposed by the U.S. on Indian goods. However, on February 20, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the sweeping tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.
Following that, the Trump-administration announced 10% tariffs under Section 122 of the Trade Act on all the countries for 150 days on February 24. It will expire on July 24 this year.
The meeting between the two sides is important on account of these changes in the U.S. tariff regime.
India and the United States formally launched BTA negotiations on February 13, 2025. On February 7, 2026, the two sides announced that they had reached a framework for an interim agreement regarding reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade.
According to that framework, the U.S. had agreed to reduce tariffs on India to 18% from 50%. It had removed the 25% tariffs on Indian goods for buying Russian oil and was to cut the remaining 25% to 18% under the pact. But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against these tariffs.
Under the agreed framework, India proposed to eliminate or reduce tariffs on all U.S. industrial goods and a wide range of food and agricultural products, including Dried Distillers’ Grains (DDGs), red sorghum for animal feed, tree nuts, fresh and processed fruit, soybean oil, wine and spirits, and additional products.
New Delhi has also expressed its intentions to purchase $500 billion of U.S. energy products, aircraft and aircraft parts, precious metals, technology products, and coking coal over the next five years.
As the tariff landscape changed in the U.S., both sides are relooking at the agreement’s framework.
The February joint statement on the framework has a clause that, in the event of any changes to the agreed-upon tariffs of either country, the U.S. and India agree that the other country may modify its commitments.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Trade Representative launched two Section 301 investigations on March 11 and 12 covering about 60 economies. One focused on alleged excess industrial capacity, while the other examined forced-labour concerns in global supply chains. India was included in both investigations.
When the framework of the first phase of the agreement was finalised, India had a comparative advantage over its competitor countries, such as ASEAN nations (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia), Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Under the framework, the U.S. had announced an 18% tariff on Indian goods. At that time, tariffs on India’s competing countries ranged from 19 to 20%. But now, all countries face the same 10% additional levy.
It is now important that India gets an advantage over its competitor nations on the tariff front in the trade pact with the U.S..
The U.S. was the second-largest trading partner of India in 2025-26.
India’s outbound shipments to the U.S. grew marginally by 0.92% to $87.3 billion during the last fiscal year, while imports increased 15.95% to $52.9 billion. The trade surplus declined to $34.4 billion in 2025-26 from $40.89 billion in 2024-25.
Published – June 23, 2026 01:19 pm IST
