Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Trump have reportedly agreed to designate representatives for negotiations regarding a mutually beneficial multi-sector Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), reported ANI quoting sources.
The representatives are likely to work towards increasing market access, reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers and deepening supply chain integration, said sources.
During the recent visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Washington, India and the US announced their commitment to more than double the two-way commerce and negotiate the first tranche of a mutually beneficial, multi-sector Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) by fall of 2025.
The development comes amid US President Donald Trump saying India has agreed to cut its tariffs ‘way down’ as he reiterated his claim that the country charges America massive tariffs that make it difficult to sell products there.
On Friday, in remarks from the Oval Office, Trump said, “Our country, from an economic standpoint and financial standpoint and a trade standpoint, has been absolutely ripped off by almost every country in the world. Canada, Mexico and then you just go right down the line. India charges us massive tariffs, massive, you can’t even sell anything into India. It’s almost, it’s almost restrictive. It is restrictive. We do very little business inside.”
He further added, “They’ve agreed, by the way, they want to cut their tariffs way down now because somebody’s finally exposing them for what they’ve done.”
On Thursday, Trump said India is a very high-tariff nation and reiterated that reciprocal tariffs on countries that impose levies on American goods will kick in on April 2.
In his address to the joint session of Congress on Tuesday, the first of his second term in the White House, Trump criticised the high tariffs charged by India and other countries and termed them as “very unfair”.
Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday returned from Washington after holding trade talks with his US counterparts.
During his week-long visit, Goyal held talks with US Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
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