Talks between the US and India over the planned trade deal are moving along, according to Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, who also expressed optimism that both parties would soon strive for a just and equitable agreement.
Last week, a delegation of Indian officials led by Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal visited Washington to discuss trade with their American counterparts. On October 17, the three-day negotiations came to a close. Our teams are involved, and we are having conversations with the USA.
The Commerce Secretary met with his colleagues during his recent visit to the United States. We are still in contact with them, and discussions are moving forward. In Berlin, Goyal told Doordarshan, “We want to work towards a fair and equitable arrangement in the near future.” Leaders of the United States and India instructed authorities to discuss a potential Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) in February of this year. They have set a timetable of October to November 2025 for the completion of the first tranche of the agreement. Negotiations have gone through five rounds thus far.
Goyal also led a formal mission to trade negotiations in New York last month. These discussions are crucial since the Trump administration’s imposition of a high 50% tax on Indian exports has severely strained ties between the two nations. It includes an extra 25% import tax for purchasing Russian crude oil. These levies are “unfair, unjustifiable, and unreasonable,” according to India. After the US placed heavy tariffs on Indian imports, the negotiations came to a temporary standstill. On September 16, after a short break, Brendan Lynch, the Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia, met with Indian authorities in New Delhi.
During the meeting, both parties committed to working toward an early and advantageous agreement settlement. By 2030, the proposed agreement seeks to more than quadruple the existing USD 191 billion in bilateral commerce to USD 500 billion.
For the fourth year in a row, the United States was India’s biggest trading partner in 2024–2025, with bilateral trade totaling USD 131.84 billion (USD 86.5 billion in exports). It makes up around 18% of India’s total goods exports, 6.22% of its total imports, and 10.73% of its overall merchandise trade. The Commerce Ministry data shows that although imports rose 11.78 percent to USD 3.98 billion in September, India’s product exports to the US fell 11.93 percent to USD 5.46 billion as a result of Washington’s hefty tariffs.