Representatives of India’s Department of Commerce visited the Office of the US Trade Representative in Washington, DC, and had fruitful discussions on wide ranging subjects covering tariff and non-tariff matters, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a statement on Tuesday.

This meeting follows earlier bilateral discussions held in March in New Delhi.

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According to the ministry statement, the team from India discussed the pathway for concluding the first tranche of the mutually beneficial, multi-sector Bilateral Trade Agreement by Fall of 2025, including through opportunities for early mutual wins.

While productive Sectoral expert level engagements have taken place through the virtual format, in-person Sectoral engagements are planned from end May.

In a separate development, the US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said India is likely to be among the first countries to finalise a bilateral trade agreement with the US to avert reciprocal tariffs by President Donald Trump.

“Negotiations with our Asian trading partners are going very well. Vice President (JD) Vance was in India last week and talked about substantial progress. I have mentioned that the negotiations with the Republic of Korea have gone very well. And I think we’ve had some very substantial negotiations with our Japanese allies,” Bessent said during an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box’.

On April 2, US President Donald Trump had announced sweeping reciprocal tariffs on a number of countries, including India and China.

Later on April 9, Trump announced a 90-day suspension of these tariffs until July 9 this year, except for those on China and Hong Kong.

The 10% baseline tariff imposed on the countries remains in effect, besides the 25% duties on steel, aluminium, and auto components.