 "Sunil Barthwal, commerce secretary")
Talks between India and the United States on a proposed bilateral trade agreement are moving ahead steadily, a senior Indian government official confirmed on Thursday (May 15).
Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said that an Indian delegation will travel to Washington soon for the next round of discussions.
The team, led by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, is set to begin talks in the US capital from May 17. The four-day visit will include meetings with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
The discussions are part of an ongoing effort by both sides to lay the groundwork for an interim trade deal, focusing on goods. The goal is to secure "early mutual wins" before concluding the first phase of a broader agreement, likely by autumn (September–October) this year.
Trump reveals India’s offer
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In a speech on Thursday, US President Donald Trump claimed that India had offered zero tariffs on American products as part of the new trade agreement. Addressing a business event in Qatar, Trump said India was “willing to literally charge us no tariff” on goods exported from the US. However, he did not go into detail about which sectors or products the offer might include.
This isn’t the first time Trump has mentioned such an offer. So far, the Indian government has not officially responded to his latest comments.
“They’ve offered us a deal where basically they’re willing to literally charge us no tariff... They’re the highest, and now they’re saying no tariff,” Trump said. He made the remark while speaking about Apple’s growing investment in India. The company recently announced that all iPhones sold in the US will soon be made in India — a major shift in its global manufacturing strategy.
Stock market rebounds
Indian stock markets saw a strong rebound on Thursday after a sluggish start. The Sensex surged by 1,400 points, and the Nifty50 crossed the 25,000 mark during intraday trade. The rally was largely fuelled by Trump’s remarks suggesting a potential zero-tariff deal with India, which boosted investor confidence.
 "Rupee dollar")
 "India exports")
 "Arvind Limited, Arvind fashions limited, branded apparel, retail, engineering, textiles, retail business, anup engineering")
 "S Jaishankar, Jaishankar")
 "IMF, International Monetary Fund")
