India is engaging the Trump Administration at two levels -- political and official-level.
India and the US are trying to negotiate an interim deal before July 8 to ensure full exemption from the imposition of 26 per cent "reciprocal tariff" on Indian domestic goods, government sources have said. The 90-day "pause" placed on the reciprocal tariff by the US will be lifted on July 9. The 10 per cent baseline tariff remains in place though.
Recently Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal returned from the US after talks with US Commerce Secretary and other senior officials of President Donald Trump's administration and now India's chief negotiator Rajesh Aggarwal is continuing.
The trade talks have been positive so far, sources told NDTV.
India wants an interim deal ahead of the finalization of the first tranche of India-US Bilateral Trade Agreement by September-October, to avoid reciprocal tariff on Indian goods.
India is engaging the Trump Administration at two levels -- political and the official-level, sources said.
On April 2, the US had imposed an additional 26 per cent reciprocal tariff on Indian goods but suspended it for 90 days till July 9, 2025.
President Trump, in his second term, eliminated all country and product-specific exemptions arguing that it would help protect the US domestic industries. He reinstated 25 per cent tariff on all steel and aluminium imports.
India, in its retaliatory measure, said it would place tariffs on $7.6 billion worth of imports from the US.
On April 2, the US suspended the additional 26 per cent tariffs on India till July 9 and now both sides are working to take advantage of the 90-day tariff pause window to advance the trade talks.
India is seeking duty concessions on labour-intensive sectors like textiles, gems and jewellery, leather goods, garments, plastics, chemicals, shrimp, oil seeds, chemicals, grapes, and bananas in the proposed pact with America.
The US wants concessions for industrial goods, automobiles (electric vehicles in particular), wines, petrochemical products, dairy, agriculture items such as apples, tree nuts and GM (genetically modified) crops.
