Commerce minister Piyush Goyal declared his confidence in the implementation of a “very vibrant first phase of bilateral trade pact with the US” by the middle of next month while speaking at a press conference after the National Workshop on Seafood Exports in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
The remarks come amid President Trump’s decision to implement an additional 12.5% tariffs on imports from 60 countries, including India, over forced-labour allegations.
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“We had excellent discussions from the 2nd to the 4th of this month,” Goyal said.
“We had a full team of officials from different divisions of trade from the USA in Delhi. I also met with them yesterday, and we are fast-moving towards closing all the open ends, and I think by sometime by the middle of next month or so we should be in a position to execute a very, very vibrant first tranche,” he added.
Further meetings are expected to take place in the following weeks in order to fine tweak the initial trade offerings.
“It is only the first tranche of our bilateral trade agreement, which will give preferential access to India over our competitors,” Goyal said. “While we finalise the dates, I expect even a higher level of delegation to be coming to India, probably towards the end of this month.”
US confident too
Earlier on Friday (June 5), US State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott had shown optimism regarding the progress of trade negotiations with India, assuring that a ilateral trade deal remained a top priority for the Trump administration.
The US delegation, led by their chief negotiator Brendan Lynch, was in New Delhi to hold talks from June 2-4 with their Indian counterparts, led by Darpan Jain, additional secretary in the Department of Commerce.
An initial framework for the first phase of the bilateral trade agreement was revealed on February 3. The deal seeks to target multiple aspects such as market access, non-tariff measures, customs and trade facilitation and investment promotion.
The tariff threat
Despite the expected success of current negotiations regarding a bilateral trade pact between the two countries, Washington DC introduced a fresh threat to India’s export market by declaring an additional 12.5% tariff on the country, among 54 others including nations like Australia, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the UK and the UAE, as previously reported by HT.
In contrast, the EU and Pakistan only face a 10% tariff rate. The trade action has been facilitated by the White House due to accusations of forced labour in such countries which place American manufacturers and labourers at a significant disadvantage.
“For years, India took advantage of the United States,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Thursday (June 4). “They charged us tremendous tariffs and paid nothing. Now it is the exact reverse and we are making a lot of money with India. But we will get to a deal because I like your Prime Minister [Narendra Modi] a lot. He is a good friend of mine, and we get along well. We have a good relationship.”
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“The failure of our most important trading partners to address the importation of goods made with forced labor is unacceptable. This creates a dynamic where American workers are forced to compete globally on an unlevel playing field,” US trade representative ambassador Jamieson Greer said in a statement.
The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) revealed in a statement issued on Tuesday that it had concluded under Section 301 of the US Trade Act of 1974 that the acts, policies and practices of the 60 economies are “unreasonable and burden or restrict US commerce”, making them actionable under American trade law.