India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday, October 15, that the first tranche of the bilateral trade agreement with the United States has been finalised and is now in legal drafting. Speaking in New Delhi, he said India hopes to close and operationalise the deal soon, but wants to be sure it gains a competitive tariff advantage over peer countries selling into the American market.
The timing of signing remains open. Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said Washington is still working on its overall tariff structure, and India expects the deal to bring greater certainty. In July, the US determined a 10 percent duty on India after a forced-labour investigation under Section 301 of its trade law, and similar probes involving several economies are under way.
The background is complicated. In February, the two countries announced an interim framework under which Washington agreed to cut reciprocal tariffs on India to 18 percent from 25 percent, while India committed to increase purchases of American energy and other goods. The US Supreme Court later struck down the legal basis for those reciprocal tariffs, sending both sides back to revise terms.
US Ambassador Sergio Gor said talks have reached product-level and tariff-level discussions involving US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Goyal, and described the negotiations as among the fastest-moving between two large economies. He pointed to growing investments in India by American technology firms including Google, Microsoft, Adobe and Micron, and said Secretary of State Marco Rubio will soon visit India, with stops planned in Mumbai and Jamnagar. Separately, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is due to attend the G20 summit in Miami on December 14 and 15.
Why it matters: For Indian exporters, the final tariff rate will decide competitiveness in their largest export market. For Washington, the deal opens access to a consumer base of more than 1.4 billion people.