New Delhi, March 14: Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said that he “had a forward-looking discussion with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on a mutually beneficial Bilateral Trade Agreement” between India and the US.
“Our approach will be guided by ‘India First’, ‘Viksit Bharat’ and our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership,” Goyal posted on X along with a photo of his meeting Greer. Goyal had previously met Greer and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick during his visit to the US last week.
This followed US President Donald Trump and PM Narendra Modi’s talks on negotiating the first tranche of a mutually beneficial, multi-sector Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) by the fall of 2025. The two leaders resolved to deepen the US-India trade relationship to promote growth that ensures fairness, national security, and job creation.
To this end, the leaders set a bold new goal for bilateral trade – “Mission 500” – aiming to more than double total bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030. US Trade Secretary Lutnick said recently that he was keen to negotiate a broad-based trade agreement with India, taking into account the entire trade relationship rather than individual products.
Meanwhile, the government has informed the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs that India has not made any commitment to reduce tariffs on goods imported from the USA. In a briefing on the issue, Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal told the Parliamentary committee that negotiations between India and the US were still ongoing and that no trade agreement had been finalised.
The Commerce Secretary’s clarification came in the wake of US President Trump’s statement that India has agreed to bring “way down” its tariffs on US goods. Barthwal said: “One cannot go by the US President’s claims and on media reports as the bilateral trade agreement talks between the two nations are still on. India has not committed to anything on trade tariffs to the US.”
He also made it clear that India’s interests were of paramount importance and would be taken care of during the trade negotiations. Barthwal said that India was in favour of increasing bilateral trade with the USA but would not indiscriminately lower tariffs, especially in sectors crucial to its domestic economy.
“India prefers to negotiate tariff reductions bilaterally rather than multilaterally to ensure national interests are upheld,” Barthwal told the committee. Trump’s ‘America First’ policy has the potential to disrupt world trade as the US President has accused trading partners of unfair practices and threatened to impose punitive tariffs on a large scale. He has accused India of levying massive tariffs on US goods.
IANS