India-US trade talks from April 23, focus on early agreement amid tariff concerns

New Delhi, Apr 21, 2025 : India and the US are meeting next week to speed up negotiations on the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), in an effort to avert some of the pressure being imposed by the Trump administration on India to significantly reduce trade tariffs.

Commerce Ministry sources today said Indian and US officials would meet for three days starting April 23 and discuss broad contours of the BTA, focusing on 19-chapter terms of reference which had been finalised.

“The Indian team led by Additional Secretary (Commerce) Rajesh Agarwal will be in Washington DC next week for the three-day meeting with the US counterparts. The two sides will also aim to go beyond the agreed terms of reference and discuss American interests in agriculture, non-tariff barriers besides customs facilitation,” a source said.

Agarwal, India’s chief trade negotiator with the US, was yesterday appointed Special Secretary Commerce by an order of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Agarwal will take over as Commerce Secretary once incumbent Sunil Barthwal retires on September 30.

Sources said the upcoming round of talks aimed to finalise a deliverable for both sides in the 90-day reciprocal tariff pause announced recently by US President Donald Trump.

“We will talk about the level of ambition on both sides, terms of reference will be further refined and developed. Pathways for talks will be laid down. The terms of reference will focus on tariffs, non-tariff barriers, rules of origin, goods, services, custom facilitation and regulatory issues,” the source said.

The trade talk plan comes close on the heels of top government sources recently exuding confidence in India’s firm positioning in the ongoing tariff challenge with the US.

A senior government leader had even recently said an interim trade agreement could be firmed up between India and the US in the 90-day tariff pause if it was a “win-win” for both sides.

The Indian delegation’s visit to the US will come close after Brendan Lynch, Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia, came to India on March 25 for tariff-related discussions. India is the only country which the US trade delegation visited for talks after Trump’s reciprocal tariff announcement.

On April 2, Trump announced reciprocal tariffs for most trade partners of the US, including India, which faced a 26 per cent levy. On April 9, Trump paused the tariff implementation for 90 days until July 8 to enable negotiation of trade deals with interested partners and said 75 countries had approached him.

India was the first country to anticipate the challenge and join negotiations in February for a Bilateral Trade Agreement with the US.

The US has been seeking lowering of Indian tariffs on its imports spanning agri, automobile, alcohol and other sectors.

Export data released by the Commerce Ministry earlier this week showed the US was India’s top trade partner in the Financial Year-2025 with exports amounting to $86.51 billion. This was 19 per cent of India’s overall exports.

US exports to India hovered at $43.33 billion in FY-25 indicating a trade deficit.