Indian Team To Reach Washington On April 20 For India-US Trade Talk

New Delhi: The India-US trade discussion is back on track as a team of dozen officers from India will reach Washington on April 20 for three-day talks with the US authorities on the first phase of the bilateral trade agreement (BTA). Both sides are expected to re-look at the framework of the agreement as the tariff landscape has changed in the US, according to the official sources.

Following the decision of the US Supreme Court against the sweeping tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump on a number of countries; the Trump administration imposed a 10 per cent tariff on all countries from February 24 for 150 days. “The meeting will happen from April 20-22 in Washington DC. India's chief negotiator Darpan Jain (additional secretary in the department of commerce) is leading the team. Officers from customs and external affairs ministry are also part of the Indian team,” the sources said.

“As far as the deal is concerned, we expect the agreement will have to be recalibrated, redrafted and that amount of change will take place from their side. In our case (India), since the agreement has not been signed, we have got the option where we can right now change whatever needs to be changed,” the sources said.

Further, the two unilateral investigations launched by the US Trade Representative (USTR) may also figure in the three-day deliberations. India has strongly rejected allegations made by the US Trade Representative in those two investigations under its Section 301 of trade law and has requested to terminate the probes as the initiation notice has failed to provide cogent rationale to substantiate the claims.

According to that framework, the US had agreed to reduce tariffs on India to 18 per cent, from 50 per cent. It had removed the 25 per cent tariffs on Indian goods for buying Russian oil and was to cut the remaining 25 per cent to 18 per cent under the pact.