photo courtesy : Deccan Chronicle
NEW DELHI: India will finalise and announce the details of its Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) with the United States once Washington agrees to provide India with preferential tariff rates compared with its competitors, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday.
“As soon as the US is able to give us the preferential rate in comparison to our competition, we will finalise the BTA and announce the final details,” Goyal said while addressing a national workshop on the Leveraging FTAs Outreach programme.
Goyal said the trade agreements India has already concluded are creating major export opportunities for Indian businesses.
He added that India is also working towards concluding several more trade agreements in the coming months and years.
The countries being considered as potential trade partners include Canada, Mexico, Chile, the Brazil-led Mercosur bloc, the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Israel.
India and the US have been negotiating a mutually beneficial Bilateral Trade Agreement. During his June 22-24 visit to New Delhi, US Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer and Goyal reviewed key areas of the proposed agreement.
These included greater market access, digital trade, stronger supply chains, reducing non-tariff barriers and cooperation in strategic sectors.
Both sides said their negotiating teams had made substantial progress.
They reaffirmed their commitment to a balanced and commercially meaningful agreement that would provide tangible benefits to businesses, farmers, workers and consumers in both countries.
In February, India and the US announced a framework for an Interim Agreement on reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade, while reaffirming their commitment to negotiating the broader BTA.
In the latest development in June, Greer led a US delegation to New Delhi to meet Goyal. The two sides reviewed the core elements of the BTA and continued discussions on the interim deal.
India’s total goods exports to the US stood at USD 103.82 billion in 2025, while US goods exports to India were around USD 45.6 billion. The total bilateral goods trade stood at USD 149.42 billion.
In services, bilateral trade stood at USD 92.23 billion in 2025. India exported USD 48.67 billion worth of services to the US and imported USD 43.56 billion worth of services.
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