New Delhi, May 31: India and the United States will restart discussions on an interim bilateral trade agreement this week. Chief negotiators from both sides will convene for a four-day meeting beginning June 1 in the national capital. The primary goal of the discussions will be to finalize the details and legal draft of the proposed interim trade agreement, which was initially agreed upon earlier this year.
The U.S. delegation will be led by chief negotiator Brendan Lynch, while India’s team will be headed by Darpan Jain, Additional Secretary in the Commerce Department. These talks are expected to advance discussions on several areas under the broader Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), including market access, non-tariff barriers, customs and trade facilitation, investment incentives, and economic security cooperation.
The negotiations were initiated following a joint statement issued by both countries on February 7, outlining the framework for the first phase of the BTA. Under the proposed arrangement, the U.S. agreed to reduce tariffs on Indian exports from 50% to 18% and to eliminate an additional 25% tariff imposed on certain Indian goods related to oil purchases from Russia.
However, the trade environment has significantly changed since then. On February 20, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariff policy implemented under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) of 1977. Following this ruling, the U.S. administration imposed a uniform 10% tariff on imports from all countries, effective from February 24 for a period of 150 days.
These changes led to the postponement of the meeting originally scheduled for February among chief negotiators. Talks resumed in April in Washington when an Indian delegation, led by Jain, visited the U.S. from April 20 to 23. The upcoming meeting in New Delhi aims to advance those discussions and assess how the revised tariff framework impacts the proposed trade agreement.
Officials and trade experts believe that amendments to the agreement may be necessary, as a uniform 10% tariff now applies to all U.S. trading partners.
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