Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal will lead a senior Indian delegation to Washington on Might 17 for essential commerce talks geared toward securing an interim bilateral commerce settlement with the US, an Indian official introduced Tuesday.
The four-day go to, scheduled by Might 20, will see Goyal interact with US Commerce Consultant Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick as each nations push to finalize the primary part of the broader commerce settlement by September-October.
Talks will deal with ironing out market entry, guidelines of origin, and non-tariff boundaries, with chief negotiators assembly from Might 19 to 22. The discussions come amid a 90-day pause on retaliatory tariffs, following the US resolution on April 2 to droop its extra 26 p.c tariffs on choose Indian items till July 9. Nonetheless, a ten p.c baseline tariff stays in impact.
Goyal’s go to follows Vice President JD Vance’s diplomatic journey to New Delhi final month and builds on groundwork laid throughout Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s US go to in February, the place either side set a goal of finalizing a commerce pact’s preliminary part by fall 2025 and boosting bilateral commerce to $500 billion by 2030.
India is pushing for obligation cuts on labor-intensive sectors like textiles, gems and jewelry, leather-based items, shrimp, oil seeds, grapes, and bananas. The US, in the meantime, seeks concessions in industrial items, electrical automobiles, dairy, wines, petrochemicals, and agricultural objects similar to apples and tree nuts.
Each nations have already launched sector-specific talks to hammer out these points, with the proposed settlement protecting 19 chapters together with tariffs, companies, customs facilitation, and non-tariff boundaries. Washington continues to boost considerations over India’s non-tariff practices that it claims limit US exports.
With the US remaining India’s largest buying and selling accomplice — bilateral commerce hit $129 billion in 2024, with India having fun with a $45.7 billion surplus — the stakes are excessive for Goyal’s go to as each international locations purpose to keep away from contemporary tariff escalations and deepen financial ties underneath President Donald Trump’s administration.
