The Indian team headed by special secretary in the department of commerce Rajesh Agrawal will remain in Washington till Monday for negotiations on an interim trade agreement with the US, an official said even as a report claimed an interim deal “could be announced by July 8”.
The stay of the Indian officials has been extended for three days until June 30. Initially, the delegation was scheduled to stay for two days with the talks having commenced on June 26.
When the Indian team arrived, US President Donald Trump had said America would have a “very big” trade deal with India, his arrestion coming hours after a Reuters report quoting sources in the Indian side said that the trade talks had hit a roadblock over disagreements on import duties for auto components, steel and farm goods.
"Everybody wants to make a deal and have a part of it,” Trump said during an event at the White House promoting passage of the GOP's tax and spending cuts legislation last Thursday.
“Remember a few months ago, the press was saying, 'You really have anybody of any interest?’ Well, we just signed with China yesterday. We are having some great deals. We have one coming up, maybe with India. Very big one," said Trump.
The negotiations are significant as both countries are engaged in negotiations for an interim trade deal and are trying to finalise the pact before July 9, the deadline for the expiry of the suspensions of reciprocal tariffs imposed by the Donald Trump administration on April 2.
An India Today report on Monday cited sources as saying that “all terms have been agreed upon by both sides”.
“Yes, we would love to have an agreement, a big, good, beautiful one; why not?” Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman also told The Indian Express in an interview published Monday.
However, Sitharaman “made an unequivocal commitment to draw definitive red lines in the best interests of India’s farmers and livestock breeders,” per the Express.
On April 2, the US had imposed an additional 26 per cent reciprocal tariff on Indian goods but suspended it for 90 days. However, the 10 per cent baseline tariff imposed by America remains in place. India is seeking full exemption from the additional 26 per cent tariff.
Agriculture and dairy sectors are difficult and challenging areas for India to give duty concessions to the US. India has not opened up dairy in any of its free trade pacts signed so far.
The US wants duty concessions on certain industrial goods, automobiles - especially electric vehicles, wines, petrochemical products, dairy, and agricultural items like apples, tree nuts, and genetically modified crops.
India is seeking duty concessions for labour-intensive sectors like textiles, gems and jewellery, leather goods, garments, plastics, chemicals, shrimp, oil seeds, grapes, and bananas in the proposed trade pact.
The two countries are also looking to conclude talks for the first tranche of the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA) by fall (September-October) this year. The pact is aimed at more than doubling bilateral trade to USD 500 billion by 2030 from the current USD 191 billion.
Before the first tranche, they are trying for an interim trade pact.
The US team was here from June 5 to June 11 for the talks. The negotiations will continue both virtually and physically in the days to come.
India's merchandise exports to the US rose by 21.78 per cent to $17.25 billion in April-May this fiscal, while imports rose by 25.8 per cent to $8.87 billion.
