India-US trade deal: US team to visit India in August for another round of agreement talks; Trump's tariff deadline nears
India-US trade deal: Amidst ongoing negotiations between India and the US, an American delegation is scheduled to visit India in August. India and the US are looking to seal an interim trade deal before American President Donald Trump's' August 1 deadline even as talks for the first phase of the agreement will continue.
The American delegation is expected to visit India in the second half of August for another round of discussions, an official told PTI.
The Indian and American delegations concluded their fifth round of discussions for the agreement in Washington last week.
The discussions were led by India's chief negotiator and special secretary in the Department of Commerce Rajesh Agrawal, alongside Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch.
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"For the next round of talks, US team will visit India in the second half of August," the official was quoted as saying.
Regarding the prospect of an interim trade agreement before August 1, the official said that discussions were currently underway.
India-US Trade Deal Talks
Agricultural sector opening and auto sector tariffs were discussed during the fifth round of negotiations. Topics concerning approaches to handle non-market economies, and SCOMET (Special Chemicals, Organisms, Materials, Equipment, and Technologies) were also deliberated.
India has toughened its stance on American requests for duty reductions on agricultural and dairy products. New Delhi has maintained its position of not offering duty concessions in the dairy sector to any trading partners within free trade agreements.
Several farmers' organisations have requested the government to exclude all agriculture-related matters from the trade agreement.
India wants the US to do away with the supplementary tariff of 26% whilst pursuing reductions in steel and aluminium duties (50 per cent) and automotive sector levies (25 per cent).
These discussions form a crucial component of the ongoing trade agreement talks.
India maintains its WTO-sanctioned authority to implement reciprocal duties in response.
India seeks preferential duty treatment for its labour-intensive industries, including textiles, gems and jewellery, leather goods, garments, plastics, chemicals, shrimp, oil seeds, grapes and bananas within the proposed trade agreement.
The US desires duty reductions on select industrial products, automobiles (particularly electric vehicles), wines, petrochemical products, agricultural commodities, dairy items, apples, tree nuts and genetically modified crops.
On April 2 this year, Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on a lot of countries. The execution of elevated tariffs was promptly deferred for 90 days until July 9 and subsequently until August 1, whilst America conducts trade negotiations with various countries.
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India and the US aim to finalise discussions for the initial phase of the bilateral trade agreement by September-October this year, with plans for an interim trade arrangement beforehand.
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India's goods exports to the US increased by 22.8 per cent to $25.51 billion during April-June this fiscal year, whilst imports grew by 11.68 per cent to $12.86 billion.
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