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U.S., India to work toward finalising Interim Agreement with view to concluding BTA: White House fact sheet

admin — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 08:20:00 +0000

In the coming weeks, the U.S. and India will work toward finalising the interim agreement on trade with a view to concluding a mutually beneficial Bilateral Trade Agreement, the White House has said.

The two countries will also continue negotiations to address remaining issues, including services and investment, labour and government procurement, it said.

Days after India and the U.S. announced in a joint statement the framework for an Interim Agreement regarding reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade, the White House issued a fact sheet on ‘The United States and India Announce Historic Trade Deal (Interim Agreement).’ The fact sheet highlights key terms of the agreement, including that India will eliminate or reduce tariffs on all US industrial goods and a wide range of U.S. food and agricultural products.

This includes dried distillers’ grains, red sorghum, tree nuts,and fresh and processed fruit. certain pulses, soybean oil, wine and spirits, and additional products and India has committed to buy more American products and purchase over USD 500 billion of US energy, information and communication technology, agricultural, coal, and other products.

On the ‘Prosperous Path Forward’, the fact sheet said that U.S. President Donald Trump continues to advance the interests of the American people, enhancing market access for American exporters and lowering tariff and non-tariff barriers to protect our economic and national security.

“India has maintained some of the highest tariffs on the United States of any major world economy, with tariffs as high as an average of 37 per cent for agricultural goods and more than 100% on certain autos. India also has a history of imposing highly protectionist non-tariff barriers that have banned and prohibited many U.S. exports to India,” the fact sheet said.

“In the coming weeks, the United States and India will promptly implement this framework and work toward finalising the Interim Agreement with a view to concluding a mutually beneficial BTA to lock in benefits for American workers and businesses,” it said.

The announcement provides a “tangible path forward” with India that underscores the President’s dedication to realising balanced, reciprocal trade with an important trading partner.

Further, it added that in line with the roadmap set out in the terms of reference for the BTA, the United States and India will “continue negotiations to address the remaining tariff barriers, additional non-tariff barriers, technical barriers to trade, customs and trade facilitation, good regulatory practices, trade remedies, services and investment, intellectual property, labour, environment, government procurement, and trade-distorting or unfair practices of state-owned enterprises.”

It said India will address non-tariff barriers that affect bilateral trade in priority areas.

The United States and India will negotiate rules of origin that ensure that the agreed benefits accrue predominantly to the United States and India.

India will remove its digital services taxes and committed to negotiate a robust set of bilateral digital trade rules that address discriminatory or burdensome practices and other barriers to digital trade, including rules that prohibit the imposition of customs duties on electronic transmissions.

The United States and India committed to strengthening economic security alignment to enhance supply chain resilience and innovation through complementary actions to address non-market policies of third parties as well as cooperating on inbound and outbound investment reviews and export controls, it said adding that the two countries will significantly increase bilateral trade in technology products and expand joint technology cooperation.

It noted that last Friday (February 6, 2026), Mr. Trump announced the trade deal with India that will open up the country’s market of over 1.4 billion people to American products.

The joint statement follows a call between Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week, “in which the leaders reached a framework for an Interim Agreement on reciprocal trade and reaffirmed their commitment to broader U.S.-India Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) negotiations.”

It noted that Mr. Trump agreed to remove the additional 25% tariff on imports from India in “recognition of India’s commitment to stop purchasing” Russian oil. Accordingly, the President signed an Executive Order last Friday removing that additional 25% tariff.

“Given India’s willingness to align with the United States to confront systemic imbalances in the bilateral trade relationship and shared national security challenges, the United States will lower the Reciprocal Tariff on India from 25% to 18%.

Published – February 10, 2026 10:41 am IST

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U.S. team led by deputy USTR Switzer to visit India from December 10-12 to discuss tariffs

admin — Sat, 06 Dec 2025 10:57:00 +0000

The U.S. currently has imposed a total of 50% tariffs on imports from India, with 25% of these constituting reciprocal tariffs, and another 25% being imposed as a penalty for India’s imports of Russian oil. File.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

A team of negotiators from the U.S. will visit India on December 10-12 to take forward talks on the first tranche, dealing with tariffs, of a Bilateral Trade Agreement between the two countries.

According to sources in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI), the U.S. delegation is expected to be led by Deputy US Trade Representative Rick Switzer, while the Indian side will be represented by Darpan Jain, joint secretary in MoCI.

The talks are not expected to constitute an official round of negotiations, the last of which took place in the U.S. in October. However, the two sides are looking forward to making “strong progress” towards addressing the issue of tariffs.

Last month, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal, who was India’s chief negotiator on the U.S. trade deal until he took over as Commerce Secretary in October, said that he was hopeful that the first tranche of the BTA, dealing with tariffs, would be concluded soon.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has also voiced similar sentiments about the deal.

It has also been reliably learnt from officials closely tracking the deal negotiations that India has presented the U.S. with a revised version of what it considers its “final concessions” on the wider issues of market access and sectoral benefits.

“The officials and negotiators have done what they can on that front,” a second official said. “Now it really is up to the leaders, and that too, one more than the other.”

There are also indications that the U.S. delegation to India might be accompanied by a “more senior” American government official.

Published – December 06, 2025 04:27 pm IST

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Indian team to visit U.S. this week for trade talks

admin — Mon, 13 Oct 2025 11:26:00 +0000

Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal meets President & CEO of U.S-India Strategic Partnership Forum, Mukesh Aghi, in New York in September. Photo: X/@PiyushGoyal via ANI

A team of senior officials from India will visit the U.S. this week for trade talks and negotiations on the proposed Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) are progressing well, a top official said on Monday (October 13, 2025). In February 2025, leaders of the two countries directed officials to negotiate a proposed BTA.

It was planned to conclude the first tranche of the pact by the fall (October-November) of 2025. So far, five rounds of negotiations have been completed.

“The Indian team will visit this week,” the official added.

Last month, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal led an official delegation to New York for trade talks. After that meeting, India and the U.S. decided to continue negotiations for an early conclusion of a mutually beneficial Bilateral Trade Agreement.

Both sides held constructive meetings on various aspects of the trade deal. During the visit, the Minister held meetings with United States Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer and U.S. Ambassador-designate to India Sergio Gor.

The negotiations are important as the U.S. imposed a 25% reciprocal tariff and an additional 25% penalty on Indian goods entering the American market for purchasing Russian crude oil.

At present, a total of 50% additional import duty is imposed on Indian goods. The pact aims to more than double the bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030, from the current $191 billion.

The U.S. remained India’s largest trading partner for the fourth consecutive year in 2024-25, with bilateral trade valued at $131.84 billion ($86.5 billion exports). The U.S. accounts for about 18% of India’s total goods exports, 6.22% in imports, and 10.73% in the country’s total merchandise trade.

Published – October 13, 2025 04:56 pm IST

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