New Delhi, May 31 (IANS) India and the United States are set to resume negotiations on an interim bilateral trade agreement this week, with chief negotiators from both sides meeting in New Delhi for four days beginning June 1. The discussions are expected to focus on finalising the details and legal text of the proposed interim trade pact, whose broad framework was agreed upon earlier this year.

The US delegation will be led by chief negotiator Brendan Lynch, while India’s team will be headed by Darpan Jain, Additional Secretary in the Department of Commerce. The talks are also expected to advance discussions under the broader Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), covering areas such as market access, non-tariff barriers, customs and trade facilitation, investment promotion, and economic security cooperation.

The negotiations follow a joint statement issued by the two countries on February 7, which outlined the framework for the first phase of the BTA. Under the proposed arrangement, the United States had agreed to reduce tariffs on Indian exports to 18 per cent from 50 per cent and remove an additional 25 per cent tariff that had been imposed on certain Indian goods linked to India’s purchases of Russian oil.

However, the trade environment has shifted significantly since then. On February 20, the US Supreme Court ruled against President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariff regime, which had been implemented under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) of 1977. Following the ruling, the US administration introduced a uniform 10 per cent tariff on imports from all countries for a period of 150 days beginning February 24.

The changes prompted the postponement of a planned meeting between the chief negotiators in February. Discussions later resumed in Washington in April, when an Indian delegation led by Jain visited the US from April 20 to 23. The upcoming meeting in New Delhi is aimed at carrying forward those negotiations and assessing how the altered tariff framework affects the proposed trade pact.

Officials and trade experts believe the agreement may require recalibration, given that all US trading partners are now subject to the same 10 per cent tariff.

–IANS

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