Piyush Goyal to visit Washington for the India-US Trade Agreement with the USTR
NEW DELHI : Commerce and Industry Minister Shri Piyush Goyal working on a tight deadline will visit Washington this week as India, and the United States are planning to negotiate a bilateral trade agreement, according to an official. Will start from Monday for a week for initial talks with the US Trade Representative (USTR) who is expected to be sworn in soon.
The US Senate on Wednesday confirmed Jamieson Greer as USTR. As soon as the leadership of the department that oversees negotiations with other countries is in place, the Indian team is off to the US as both countries have set a deadline of autumn or fall of this year to conclude a multi sector Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA).
The first meeting of trade ministers, post the announcement of the BTA, will seek to get clarity on the scope of the BTA and the reciprocal tariffs that the US has in mind. Before the start of talks on the BTA, the commerce ministry has held meetings with other departments and ministries on the developments on trade matters with the US. The ministries, in turn, have held some meetings with the industry and other stakeholders. Based on the discussions with stakeholders, the commerce ministry would be seeking their inputs on stand to be taken in discussion regarding products covered by them.
The USTR has already begun study on tariff and non-tariff barriers that American exporters face across the world. The study will be followed by imposition of reciprocal tariffs on all the countries US trades with. Apart from India, the UK is the only other country that has been offered a negotiated deal so far by the Trump administration to avoid friction on trade matters.
The decision on the trade agreement came after Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump met in Washington on February 13. The agreement seeks to avoid conflict on trade matters between the two countries by addressing the concerns on both tariff and non-tariff barriers their exporters face. President Trump has sought to contract the massive trade deficits that the US runs with the world by use of tariffs.