Sharing the latest update on the first tranche of the India-US bilateral trade agreement, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday said that the first tranche of the deal has almost been finalised and a team of his ministry officials is in Washington for the discussions.
“We have almost finalised the free trade agreement, the first tranche of the bilateral trade agreement with them,” Goyal told reporters.
“We are trying to work out what would be the mechanism by which India can get preferential market access in the US market compared to our competitors,” he said, adding the Indian team will discuss these aspects during their ongoing visit.
A delegation led by chief negotiator Darpan Jain is in the United States for a three-day visit starting April 20 for trade talks.
The team was earlier scheduled to visit the US on February 23 but their proposed visit was postponed following the US Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the reciprocal tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump.
The apex court had ruled that the executive branch exceeded its constitutional authority by using emergency powers to levy broad import duties.
Following this, a US Court of International Trade in March ordered customs officials to refund the more than USD 160bn the government had collected as part of increased tariffs.
The Trump administration has reportedly begun processing refunds and roughly 330,000 importers are eligible to win back some money.