Government hopeful to finalise early deal with U.S. by July 9, on track for broader deal by fall
The government is on track and hopeful to complete an initial tranche of the India-US Bilateral Trade Agreement by the deadline of July 9, and a wider first tranche of the Agreement by Fall of this year, according to officials in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
'On the India-US BTA, the US team was here in India for six days of negotiations from June 6-11,' Rajesh Agrawal, Special Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and Chief Negotiator on India's behalf in the India-U.S. BTA negotiations, said at a press briefing. 'We are progressing towards our target of finalising tranche one by Fall of 2025.'
The Fall deadline — which is typically September to November in the U.S. — was first mentioned in a joint statement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Donald Trump following Mr. Modi's trip to the U.S. in February this year.
Regarding an early, abridged tranche of the deal, Commerce Secretary Sunil Berthwal said the government was hopeful of completing it by July 9, after which Mr. Trump's reciprocal tariffs would kick in again.
'We are working out the early tranche, and as you are aware that there is a day, July 9, before that we would like to conclude the early tranche,' Mr. Berthwal said. 'Both the teams are visiting each other. We visited the U.S. twice and the U.S. team has visited India twice, so the progress has been good. We are hopeful that this would be done within the timelines.'
On the India-U.K. Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the negotiations for which concluded in early May, Special Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce L. Satya Srinivas said the two sides were on track to complete the legal scrubbing of the text and finalise it in three months since negotiations ended. The India-EU FTA talks, too, were gaining momentum, he said.
'On the EU FTA, there are some tracks that are working this week together, and we have our next round which is scheduled on July 7,' Mr. Srinivas explained. 'The momentum has picked up regarding the EU talks and the frequency of meetings has increased. Earlier we used to have rounds that were spread across a quarter or even more, but now the time period between meetings has reduced.'
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