Trade talks with US going on: Commerce Secretary

Time of India

3 days ago

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India is "fully engaged" with the US for a bilateral trade deal, but the status of an American delegation visiting India for the next round of talks will be known closer to the scheduled date of August 25, a top official said.Clarity on the issue is expected after a crucial meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday to discuss the Ukraine conflict."Close to the date, we will be able to know how the talks will be," commerce secretary Sunil Barthwal said on Thursday.The end date for the first tranche of the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA) remains the fall of 2025, which is September or October this year, he underlined. So far, five rounds of BTA talks have been completed.Officials said negotiations are continuing between the two countries on several levels including ministerial, diplomatic and through the negotiating team. This comes amid the US imposing a 25% reciprocal tariff on Indian goods from August 7 and another 25% tariff as a penalty for buying oil and arms from Russia from August 27."The additional tariff depends on how geopolitics unfolds over the next 21 days," an official said, adding that it is too early to speculate on how it will pan out. "If conditions are favourable for India, the US may not impose additional duties," the official said referring to the Trump-Putin meet.The US remains India's largest trading partner and the commerce and industry ministry is in touch with exporters and export promotion councils to assess the impact of the 25% tariff already in effect.Several inter-ministerial committees have also been set up to understand the sectoral impact of the tariffs. State governments are also looking at how they can facilitate exporters.Officials said there does not seem to be a significant impact or front-loading of exports to the US between April and July.As per official data, India's exports to the US were $33.53 billion in April-July FY26, which is 17.8% higher than $27.57 billion in April-July 2024.India's exports to the US in July were $8.01 billion as against $8.3 billion in June and $6.68 billion in July 2024.A high-level Indian delegation to Russia next week will discuss ways to put in place a rupee-denominated trade mechanism, officials said.A team of officials from the commerce and industry ministry is expected to be a part of the delegation accompanying external affairs minister S Jaishankar on his visit to Moscow.Officials said India's trade with China has been growing positively, with both imports and exports rising.New Delhi is also in touch with Beijing to address disruptions in rare earth magnet imports from China, and to ensure that supplies are restored, they said.India's goods exports to China were $5.76 billion between April and July 2025 against $4.8 billion a year ago.The government is intensifying efforts to fast-track free trade agreements (FTAs) with the European Union (EU) and some Latin American countries. It has also asked the United Kingdom (UK) to expedite the process of ratification of the India-UK trade pact so that it comes into force soon.