New Delhi — India is very close to concluding an interim trade deal with the United States aimed at lowering tariffs, though no timeline has been fixed, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said on Monday.
“We are very close on closing the initial framework deal, but I don’t want to put a timeline to it,” Agrawal told reporters.
He said India and the U.S. have held six rounds of talks covering both a proposed bilateral trade agreement and an interim arrangement focused on reducing reciprocal tariffs. “There’s a fair expectation that both countries will be able to agree to a deal to lower reciprocal tariffs,” he said.
Agrawal noted that the recent visit of the Deputy U.S. Trade Representative was intended to review the overall state of trade relations and assess progress on both the bilateral trade agreement and the interim framework.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has also indicated positive momentum, recently stating that Washington has received the “best-ever offers from India” as part of the proposed trade agreement. Speaking at a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing in Washington, Greer said there remains resistance in India to opening its market to certain U.S. row crops, including corn, soybean, wheat, and cotton.
Addressing allegations by American officials that India is dumping rice in the U.S. market, Agrawal dismissed the claims, saying more than 80 percent of India’s rice exports to the U.S. consist of basmati rice, which is priced higher than regular rice. “So there is no case of dumping here. We already have a 50 percent tariff on rice, so I don’t see additional duties on rice as of now,” he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Donald Trump also held a telephone conversation last week following the visit of a high-level U.S. delegation to New Delhi for trade discussions.
Meanwhile, the government has taken steps to shield the economy from the impact of punitive U.S. tariffs, including GST rate cuts, export promotion packages to diversify markets, and labor reforms.
India is also working to broaden its export base beyond traditional markets. As part of this strategy, the government is identifying nearly 300 products — including engineering goods, pharmaceuticals, agricultural products, and chemicals — for export to Russia, as both countries target bilateral trade of $100 billion by 2030. (Source: IANS)
