India does not expect the trade deal with the US till the US Trade Representative's Section 301 probe is underway, a government source told Reuters on Monday.
Talks with Washington are likely to include all pending issues including Section 301 probe on India, the government source said.
Under the probe, the US Trade Representative is investigating two cases. In the first case, on March 11, Washington announced initiation of investigations against its trading partners to look into and address "unfair foreign practices" that adversely impact American manufacturing.
The economies subject to these investigations are Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, the European Union, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
The Government of India, in response, earlier said it "firmly denies all allegations made in the initiation notice".
Similarly, in its response to another investigation launched by the USTR on March 12 against a number of nations including India on failure to take action on forced labour, India has submitted that the probe does not satisfy the legal requirements for the initiation.
About a dozen officers from India were in Washington during April 20-22 to hold discussions with the US authorities on finalising the details of the first phase of the bilateral trade agreement.
US team to visit India for next round of trade talks
New Delhi expects the US team to visit the country for the next round of trade talks, though no dates have been finalised yet, an official said on Monday.
The Indian side visited Washington, DC, in April for an in-person round of meetings with their US counterparts to finalise the details of the interim agreement and take forward the negotiations under the broader bilateral trade agreement (BTA).
"Now we expect the US team to visit India next for trade talks. No dates have been decided," the official said.
After the April meet, both sides have agreed to stay engaged to sustain the momentum ahead for the trade talks.
Last month, officials of the two sides discussed several areas, such as market access, non-tariff measures, technical barriers to trade, customs and trade facilitation, investment promotion, economic security alignment and digital trade.
India and the US issued a joint statement on February 7 finalising a framework for an interim trade agreement regarding reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade.
The framework reaffirmed the countries' commitment to the broader India-US Bilateral Trade Agreement negotiations.