4 days ago
India-US trade deal: American officials to visit New Delhi in August for sixth round of talks
A team of US trade officials will visit India in August for the next round of talks for the proposed bilateral trade pact between the two nations, reported news agency PTI.
"For the next round of talks, the US team will visit India in the second half of August," a PTIreport said, quoting an official.
Last week, India and the US officials concluded the fifth round of trade talks in Washington.
Rajesh Agrawal, India's chief negotiator and special secretary in the Department of Commerce, and Brendan Lynch, Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia, held the deliberations.
In the fifth round of talks, issues related to agriculture and automobiles are learnt to have figured, reported PTI.
Matters related to ways to deal with non-market economies, and SCOMET (Special Chemicals, Organisms, Materials, Equipment, and Technologies) also came up for discussion.
New Delhi and Washington are looking at finalising an interim trade deal before August 1 deadline, which marks the end of the suspension period of Trump tariffs.
The Trump administration has imposed 26 per cent tariffs on India.
On April 2 this year, President Donald Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on the US trading partners.
According to the report, New Delhi is seeking the removal of this additional tariff of 26 per cent. It is also seeking the easing of tariffs on steel and aluminium (50 per cent) and the auto sector (25 per cent).
Certain farmers' associations have urged the government not to include any issues related to agriculture in the trade pact.
India is also seeking duty concessions for labour-intensive sectors, such as textiles, gems and jewellery, leather goods, garments, plastics, chemicals, shrimp, oil seeds, grapes, and bananas, in the proposed trade pact.
On the other hand, the US wants duty concessions on certain industrial goods, automobiles, especially electric vehicles, wines, petrochemical products, agri goods, dairy items, apples, tree nuts, and genetically modified crops.
In the April-June quarter of this fiscal year, India's merchandise exports to the US rose 22.8 per cent to $25.51 billion, while imports surged 11.68 per cent to $12.86 billion.
