India remains upbeat about the prospects of the planned bilateral trade agreement with the US and hopes that it will increase trade between the two countries, which are expected to sit together and start work on it in the coming weeks.
“We need to get going on the agreement soon given the ambitious timeline of negotiating the first tranche by fall of 2025. We will need some time to decide the contours of the trade deal for which the two sides will have to sit together and discuss,” said Additional Secretary in the Department of Commerce Rajesh Agrawal, noting that it has to be done in the next eight to nine months
Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said that the visit of the PM has helped boost trade ties between the two countries and has set the stage for a bilateral trade agreement, which is a very important objective.
As part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US to meet US President Donald Trump, the two countries came out with a joint statement on February 13 under which the leaders resolved to deepen the US-India trade relationship to promote growth that ensures fairness, national security and job creation.
To this end, the leaders set a bold new goal for bilateral trade — “Mission 500” — aiming to more than double total bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030. They also announced plans to negotiate the first tranche of a mutually beneficial, multi-sector Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) by fall of 2025.
Sources said negotiations on the free trade agreement are likely to start soon once the new US Trade Representative is appointed. The bilateral trade agreement is seen to be a much fairer and equitable agreement than the earlier plans for a mini trade deal with the US under the first Trump administration.
Meanwhile, India is also set to restart negotiations on the India-UK Free Trade Agreement later this month. The UK trade minister is set to visit India on February 24 and will meet commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on February 25. “We will take stock of the dialogue till now and take it forward,” officials said.
FTA negotiations with the European Union are also expected to move forward this month with the EU Trade Commissioner set to meet Goyal on February 28. The 10th round of FTA negotiations is scheduled to be held from March 10 to March 14 in Brussels.
