India BTA Could See About 7,000 Tariff Lines Being Changed: US Commerce Secretary Lutnick

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Friday that the bilateral trade deal with India could see about 7,000 tariff lines being modified or changed.

“When you talk about India, it’s probably 7,000 lines” of tariffs to be changed or modified under a hypothetical agreement, Lutnick said in a podcast for Bloomberg. “It just takes time, and it just takes work — so give us a chance, don’t be pushing and rushing.”

"India's been leaning in really hard. I love doing a deal with India, that's certainly a possibility, but this is a lot of work. These are a lot of lines. This was not sort of a just a glossover, handshake trade deal," Lutnick said.

India and the US are in active discussions for the first tranche of a Bilateral Trade Agreement by September–October this year. According to statement from the Indian government, the two sides discussed "opportunities for early mutual wins" when an Indian delegation from the Department of Commerce met with representatives from the Office of the US Trade Representative in Washington from April 23–25 following the earlier bilateral discussions held in March in New Delhi.

A team of senior officials from India will again visit Washington this month to hold discussions with their US counterparts, government sources said on Thursday.