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India and Canada concluded the third round of negotiations for the proposed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in Ottawa on July 10, as the two sides look to wind up the talks this year itself. The issues that figured in the five-day talks include trade in goods, services, intellectual property, rules of origin, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, and technical barriers to trade, among others. "India and Canada concluded the 3rd Round of negotiations for the India-Canada CEPA in Ottawa from 6-10 July 2026. The discussions witnessed positive progress across multiple negotiating tracks, reaffirming the shared commitment of both countries to conclude the negotiations in 2026, in line with the vision of the leaders," the Department of Commerce said in a social media post. The negotiations are important as the two sides have targeted to increase the bilateral trade to USD 50 billion by 2030. In 2025-26, the two-way trade dipped 8.22 per cent to USD 7.95 billion (USD 4.
India has asserted that trade issues with the US should be resolved through bilateral trade negotiations rather than unilateral measures, urging the USTR to reconsider its proposed 12.5 per cent tariff, citing inconsistencies in its Section 301 investigation into forced labour concerns. Participating in the public hearing, Joint Secretary in Department of Commerce Brij Mohan Mishra submitted that in light of India's genuine engagement on forced labour issues, it strongly expresses its concerns at the USTR's (US Trade Representative) determination. India takes the elimination of forced labour seriously as a constitutional obligation, and as a matter of international law and principle. "India would like to highlight its concerns with the USTR's report and findings against India," he said. The USTR has not satisfied the relevant legal standards under Section 301(d) of the Trade Act. A mere absence of a forced labour import prohibition without evidentiary basis of other statutory ...
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer is visiting India to take forward the discussions on the interim trade deal agreed to by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump in February. "This week, Ambassador Jamieson Greer will travel to New Delhi, India, to meet with the Minister of Commerce and Industry of India, Piyush Goyal, and other senior Indian officials to discuss the historic US-India joint statement and the interim agreement as part of the broader US-India Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) negotiations," the office of the US Trade Representative said in a statement on Sunday. Trump and Modi met on the sidelines of the G-7 meeting in France last week where the US president said that India and the US were very close to finalising the trade agreement. Trump also called Modi a tough negotiator and highlighted the personal rapport he enjoyed with the Indian prime minister. The meeting between Greer and Goyal comes close on the heels of negotiator-level discussions o
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal will hold two-day talks this week on the first phase of the bilateral trade agreement. "For the US trade deal talks, tomorrow my counterpart is coming to Delhi," Goyal told reporters in Mumbai. The meeting followed chief negotiator-level discussions on the pact held earlier this month (June 2-4) here in the national capital. Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal has recently stated that the discussions between the two ministers are expected to be centred around giving final touches to the framework deal. On June 5, Goyal said India and the US are moving towards closing all the open ends of the interim trade agreement, and both sides are likely to execute the "very, very vibrant" first phase of the BTA by the middle of next month. IMPORTANCE OF THE MIDDLE OF NEXT MONTH -------------------------------------------------- The 10 per cent temporary tariff imposed by the US on all its trading partners o
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump directed their officials to work towards a balanced, mutually beneficial and commercially meaningful trade agreement at the earliest. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said this on Thursday, a day after the two leaders held wide-ranging talks for the first time in 16 months on the margins of the G7 Summit in an attempt to rebuild the strained bilateral ties. US Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, will be visiting India next week to take forward the talks on the proposed trade deal. In the meeting, Modi and Trump reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthening the India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership and advancing cooperation across all domains for the mutual benefit of the two countries and their peoples, the MEA said. "The leaders noted with particular satisfaction the significant progress made in negotiations towards an interim bilateral trade agreement and instructed their officials to work ...
With India signing a series of free trade agreements with developed countries, the government is working on an FTA utilisation plan to help maximise benefits from these pacts, an official said. Since 2021, India has finalised free trade agreements (FTAs) with Mauritius, Australia, the UAE, Oman, New Zealand, the EFTA (European Free Trade Association), the European Union (EU), the UK and US. These pacts cover 38 countries whose combined global imports stand at about USD 12 trillion. The main Indian sectors that have received duty-free market access in these FTA partner countries include agriculture, textiles and apparel, gems and jewellery, leather and leather goods, engineering, electronics, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has held a series of meetings with industry associations, businesses and export promotion councils (EPCs) on ways to increase utilisation of these agreements. He suggested that businesses leverage these pacts to boost .
Repeated setbacks faced by US President Donald Trump in American courts have further heightened uncertainty over the US tariff regime, and India should wait for the United States to evolve a more stable and legally predictable trade framework before moving ahead with the proposed bilateral trade agreement, experts said. They said that this ruling is a crucial reminder that Trump's global tariffs violated WTO (World Trade Organisation) rules, and their striking down by US courts is a positive signal for multilateral trade norms. In another setback to the White House, a US federal court has struck down the 10 per cent global tariffs slapped by Trump, terming them "invalid" and "unauthorised by law". These new tariffs were imposed by Trump on all countries, including India, on February 24 for 150 days following an earlier US Supreme Court verdict that struck down his earlier sweeping levies. "The continuing uncertainty around US tariff policy, with major Trump-era tariffs repeatedly .
India and the US are "very, very close" to signing the trade deal and need to get over "that last hurdle", US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said on Tuesday. Landau said that India and the US have been negotiating for months and it was important for the two sides to "reach some closure" and move on with the many other issues on the agenda. "We are very aware of India's importance on the world stage. I think it is very important to get a final resolution of that trade deal. We have been talking now for months that we are very close, and I think we are very close. But we have to get over that last hurdle," Landau told reporters on the sidelines of the SelectUSA Investment Summit at National Harbour in Maryland near here. "I don't have any huge inside information to provide on when that is coming, but I can just reiterate that I believe that we are very, very close," said Landau, who recently visited India. "I think ultimately it's important that we reach some closure on
An official delegation will visit Washington next week to hold trade talks with US authorities, an official source said on Wednesday. The bilateral meeting between the trade officials of the two countries holds immense importance as India and the US have finalised the framework for an interim trade agreement. The team will visit the US next week, the source said. The pact was initially slated for signing in March, but changes in the tariff landscape following a US Supreme Court ruling have altered the situation. Official sources have earlier stated that the agreement will be signed once the new global tariff architecture of America is in place. India and the US, in February, announced finalisation of a framework for the first phase of the bilateral trade agreement. According to that framework, the US had agreed to reduce tariffs on India to 18 per cent. However, the tariff architecture in the US has changed following its Supreme Court ruling against President Donald Trump's sweep
Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday said the interim trade agreement reached between the Centre and the US will include India's energy requirements and would help it secure crude oil at more competitive prices. Speaking to reporters here, the Commerce and Industry Minister said that India and the US have agreed to work towards increasing the annual trade between the two countries to USD 500 billion by 2030, and the government is working to achieve this target. He said the proposed USD 500 billion trade would include India's energy requirements, such as crude oil, LNG and LPG. "India is the fastest-growing large economy in the world, and its energy demand is rising by around 7 per cent annually. Increasing imports and having more suppliers would help India secure crude oil at more competitive prices," Goyal said. Last week, India and the US announced that they had reached a framework for an interim trade agreement under which both sides will reduce import duties on a number of .