New Delhi, Nov 17: The first phase of the proposed India-US bilateral trade agreement (BTA) is ‘nearing closure’ and would address the hefty 50 per cent tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on Indian goods, in addition to resolving America’s market access issues, a government official said on Monday.
The US has imposed a 25 per cent reciprocal tariff and another 25 per cent on Indian goods entering American markets for buying Russian crude oil.
“We are engaged with the US on the BTA. It has two parts. One part of the negotiations will take time. The other part is a package which can address reciprocal tariffs. We are working on both aspects. The package that can address reciprocal tariffs is more or less near closure, and we should get it soon,” the official said.
The official added that the deal is expected to address the issue of a 25 per cent penalty on India; otherwise, the agreement would have no meaning.
The official added that the BTA has multiple packages or tranches, and this will be the first tranche to address the tariffs.
On the issue of India’s state-run oil companies signing a one-year deal to import cooking gas LPG from the US in 2026, the official said, “It was something in the works for a long time. This is in the overall context of keeping the trade with the US. It is not part of any negotiations package per se, but definitely as part of our endeavour to balance trade with the US.”
India and the US are negotiating a bilateral trade agreement.
So far, six rounds of talks have been completed. (PTI)
