A team of Indian negotiators, led by Commerce Secretary-designate Rajesh Agarwal, will travel to Washington next week to advance discussions on the proposed India-US Bilateral Trade Agreement, according to sources.
The high-level meetings are expected to take place over three days starting April 23. According to officials, the agenda for the talks has been finalised and will cover an extensive range of issues spread across 19 chapters. These include key areas such as tariffs, non-tariff barriers, rules of origin, trade in goods and services, customs facilitation, and regulatory cooperation.
This round of talks is being closely watched, with both New Delhi and Washington aiming to conclude an early harvest agreement before the fall deadline. An early harvest deal would allow the two countries to implement consensus-based elements of the broader agreement while negotiations continue on more complex issues.
The upcoming meetings mark a critical phase in the bilateral trade dialogue, which has gained momentum following recent diplomatic and business-level engagements. The Indian delegation's visit reflects growing optimism on both sides for reaching substantive outcomes that can boost trade flows and reduce friction across sectors.
Union Minister Piyush Goyal has already visited the US for talks, while Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch also was in India from March 25 to 29 for talks with the Indian side.
India and the US have targeted to conclude the first phase of the BTA by the fall (September-October) of this year, with an aim to more than double the bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030, from about $191 billion currently.
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