A trade agreement between the United States and India could be reached in the autumn, two sources close to the negotiations said on Monday.
The sources said that it had not been easy to formally sign the agreement. This is partly due to measures that the administration of US President Donald Trump is asking India to implement to reduce trade barriers. In return, Washington may only waive some of the recently imposed tariffs.
India began negotiations with the US in February. The negotiators reached agreement on some agricultural issues, energy purchases and non-tariff barriers.
During a visit to India in late April, Vice President Jay Chao announced that both sides had “formally agreed on the terms of the negotiations.” On May 20, India discussed a three-stage trade deal with the US, hoping to reach a temporary agreement before US retaliatory tariffs take effect in July.
In the interim agreement, the leaders of the two countries looked at areas such as market access for industrial goods and certain agricultural products, as well as removing a number of non-tariff barriers, such as quality control requirements.
On April 2, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing “reciprocal” tariffs on imports from other countries.
As Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said in early March, India hopes to resolve the tariff issue with the US as part of a future trade agreement, which the leaders of the two countries announced during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US in February.
Both countries have set themselves the goal of completing the first phase of the agreement by autumn (September-October) this year with the aim of more than doubling bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030 from the current $191 billion.
