3-day India-US trade talks to begin today:Union Minister Piyush Goyal says teams to conclude BTA talks soon

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said first tranche of the Bilateral Trade Agreement with US will be concluded as soon as possible and the members of the US team have begun arriving in the national capital for a three-day meeting. Our meetings are scheduled for 2,3 and 4 June. The leaders of both nations had already announced the framework agreement back on February 3. All the major points have been settled. -Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal The minister added, “US Ambassador to India, Sergio Gor, recently stated that 99% of the details have been finalised… Small commas and full stops are being discussed. While finalizing, the changes that came there, the legal changes that came in the US, how to reflect that in the final agreement, how to change accordingly, after deciding that…I am fully confident that we will conclude the first tranche of the bilateral trade agreement with the US as soon as possible. We will sign it and then proceed to initiate further discussions on how to formulate an even more comprehensive bilateral trade agreement moving forward.” The objective of the meeting is to give final legal shape to the interim agreement In this 4-day meeting, the American delegation is being led by their chief negotiator Brendan Lynch. Meanwhile, the Indian team is being commanded by Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce and Chief Negotiator Darpan Jain. According to the Ministry of Commerce, the main objective of this meeting is to legally finalize the interim agreement. Along with this, both sides will advance negotiations in several important areas such as market access, non-tariff measures, customs, trade facilitation, investment promotion, and economic security alignment under the comprehensive bilateral trade agreement (BTA). Framework was made in February: Now after Trump’s new decisions, recalculation will have to be done again Both countries had finalized the framework of an interim agreement on February 7 as the first phase of a bilateral trade agreement. Under this, America had agreed to reduce tariffs on India from 50% to 18%. Additionally, the 25% tariff imposed on Indian goods due to purchasing Russian oil was removed and the remaining 25% was to be reduced to 18%. On February 20, the US Supreme Court ruled against President Trump’s heavy reciprocal tariffs imposed under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Following this, Trump announced the imposition of a uniform 10% tariff on all countries for 150 days starting from February 24. Due to this major change, the talks scheduled for February were postponed. Later in April (April 20 to 23), the Indian team visited Washington, and now the American team has come to India to advance the discussions. In the changed atmosphere, both countries will have to recalculate this deal. India to Purchase $500 Billion Worth of American Products Under the current framework that has been agreed upon, India has proposed to remove or reduce tariffs on all American industrial goods and agricultural products. This primarily includes Dried Distillers Grains (DDGs), red sorghum for animal feed, tree nuts, fresh and processed fruits, soybean oil, wine, and spirits. In return, India has expressed its willingness to purchase approximately 500 billion dollars (about ₹47 lakh crore) worth of energy products, aircraft and aircraft parts, precious metals, technology products, and coking coal from America over the next 5 years.