Piyush Goyal on 3-day US visit for trade talks from No 12

Commerce and Industry minister Piyush Goyal will embark on a three-day visit to the United States next week in a bid to resolve bilateral issues over trade between the two countries.

The minister will arrive in Washington on November 12 and is expected to hold talks with his American counterpart Robert Lighthizer on November 13, which may result in sealing the trade deal as the two sides appear close to a breakthrough on some key knotty trade issues, an official source told ANI.

On November 14, Goyal will also hold a high-level industry interaction with business and industry representatives in New York.

Tensions on the trade front between the two countries had emerged in June after US President Donald Trump revoked preferential trade privileges, in response to which India imposed tariffs on 28 US products, including almonds and apples.

India was the biggest beneficiary of the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), a programme designed to help developing countries sell to US consumers.

On its part, India had also imposed retaliatory tariffs on 25 American goods, after the Donald Trump administration announced an end to the preferential trade treatment for India over the trade barriers.