Indian team to visit Washington soon for another round of tariff talks with US

A TEAM of Indian negotiators is set to visit Washington for another round of talks with US officials over a proposed India-US trade deal, a report said on Thursday.

According to a report by PTI, a commerce ministry team will visit the US capital to continue trade talks and ink a deal as soon as possible, as the July 9 deadline on Donald Trump's tariff pause has already come to an end.

As per the official quoted by PTI, the negotiations will happen on both interim and the first phase of the India-US bilateral trade agreement (BTA) during this visit.

The date for the next India-US trade talks has not been fixed yet. However, official sources cited by PTI said that the officials will fly to the country sometime next week.

This comes as Donald Trump earlier this week threatened BRICS nations, including India, with an additional 10 per cent tariff, labelling them as ‘anti-American’.

An Indian team led by chief negotiator Rajesh Agrawal returned earlier this month after concluding talks regarding the imminent India-US trade deal.

Why is India-US trade deal important?

India in April got slapped with a 26 per cent tariff on its imports to the US by the Donald Trump government. Before the Trump tariffs were implemented, the President announced a three-month pause on them — a deadline that was to end on July 9.

However, Trump extended the date to implement the tariffs to August 1 earlier this month.

Meanwhile, he has sent tariff letters to at least 22 countries, which are facing up to 50 per cent levies. The new Trump tariffs will come into effect on August 1.

India is yet to receive such a letter and the India-US trade talks assume significance in a scenario like this.

On Thursday, Rajesh Agarwal said India is trying to negotiate and finalise a trade agreement with the US.

The aim is to conclude the first phase of this pact by fall (September-October) of this year. Before that, the two countries are looking to finalise an interim trade agreement, Agarwal, who is also the Special Secretary in the Department of Commerce, said.

Earlier, an official said that certain issues were still persistent in the India-US trade talks.

“Indian team is back from Washington. Negotiations will continue. There are certain issues that need to be resolved in the agriculture and auto sectors,” the official was quoted as saying by PTI.

India has raised issues over the 25 per cent duty in the auto sector. It has taken up the matter in the Safeguards Committee of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

India has also informed the WTO that it has reserved the right to impose retaliatory duties on select US products in response to American tariffs on steel and aluminium.