Top officials head for Washington as trade deal deadline nears
According to the first official, the Indian team—comprising over a dozen representatives from various departments—is expected to leave either this Saturday or early next week. The official dates are yet to be announced.
The visit is expected to mark the final full-fledged round of negotiations, setting the stage for a potential announcement of the deal ahead of the revised deadline. The team will be led by India's chief negotiator and commerce secretary-designate Rajesh Agarwal, deputy chief negotiator and joint secretary, ministry of commerce, Darpan Jain, and B.M. Mishra, director and OSD to commerce minister Piyush Goyal.
'The idea is to conclude a meaningful and balanced agreement before the 31 July window. A lot of groundwork has already been done in previous meetings. This visit will aim to settle the pending differences, especially in politically sensitive areas like agriculture and food products,' said the second official aware of the development.
The official clarified that India has no plans to open up its sensitive sectors to the US.
The US is pushing for greater market access for its agricultural exports, including dairy, poultry, nuts, and processed foods. While India has shown flexibility in areas such as pharmaceuticals, industrial goods, digital trade, and tariff streamlining, the final sticking points remain agriculture and sanitary-phytosanitary (SPS) standards, where US demands have triggered domestic concerns.
'The core challenge is aligning our regulatory protections with US expectations without undermining our own producers. It will take political clarity and legal detailing, and that's exactly what this upcoming round will focus on,' the second official added.
The team heading to Washington is expected to include senior officials from the commerce ministry, departments of agriculture, pharmaceuticals, legal affairs, and finance.
Talks between India and the US had earlier targeted an 8 July deadline for the first tranche, but this was extended due to complex last-mile hurdles and the need for further internal consultations.
India in April got slapped with a 26% tariff on its exports to the US by President Donald Trump. Before the Trump tariffs were implemented, the President announced a three-month pause on them—a deadline that ended on 9 July.
However, earlier this month, Trump extended the deadline to implement the tariffs to 1 August and issued letters of revised tariff rates to 22 countries (till 9 July)—Brazil faced the highest at 50%, while Laos and Myanmar were each slapped with a 40% tariff.
India has not received such a letter yet, which makes the ongoing trade talks with the US even more important.
According to commerce ministry data, Indian goods exports to the US in the last financial year (FY25) increased by 11.6%, from $77.52 billion in FY24 to $86.51 billion in FY25. Imports from the US also rose, but by a smaller margin of 7.42%, increasing from $42.20 billion to $45.33 billion during the fiscal year that ended on 31 March.
Queries sent to commerce ministry remained unanswered till press time.
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