 "India-US trade deal: Talks are 'progressing' well, says Piyush Goyal")
Talks on a proposed trade deal between India and the United States (US) are “progressing”, with New Delhi continuing its engagement, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday.
“We are in dialogue with the United States of America. Our teams are engaged. We recently had the commerce secretary visit the US, and he met with his counterparts. We continue to engage with them, and talks are progressing. We hope to work towards a fair and equitable agreement in the near future,” Goyal said in Berlin on Thursday.
Last week, a team of officials from the Department of Commerce, including Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal, was in Washington, with a focus on reaching an early conclusion of the proposed trade agreement. Talks concluded late last week, and the team returned over the weekend. Both countries have narrowed divergences on issues related to the proposed trade agreement, and not too many differences remain.
Despite making progress in the recently concluded round, the two sides were not able to finalise an agreement, amid speculation that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump could hold a bilateral meeting at the 47th ASEAN Summit next week and make some announcement related to the proposed deal. However, on Thursday, Modi said that he would attend the summit virtually, ruling out any in-person meeting with Trump.
As announced by Trump and Modi in February, the official deadline for the first tranche of the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) continues to remain until the fall of 2025.