India, US to hold 4-day trade meet from tomorrow
What's the story
The chief negotiators of India and the United States will begin a four-day meeting on Monday in New Delhi. The talks are aimed at finalizing the details of an interim trade agreement, which was agreed upon in February. The US delegation will be led by its chief negotiator Brendan Lynch, while India's team will be headed by Darpan Jain, an additional secretary in the Department of Commerce.
Discussion topics
Negotiations to cover market access, economic security cooperation
The talks will focus on finalizing the interim agreement and progressing negotiations under the proposed Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA). The discussions are expected to cover a range of topics such as market access, non-tariff barriers, customs and trade facilitation, investment promotion, and economic security cooperation. On February 7, India and the US had agreed on a framework for the first phase of this BTA.
Tariff adjustments
Proposed tariff cuts disrupted by US Supreme Court ruling
The framework had proposed cutting US tariffs on Indian goods from 50% to 18%. It also called for removing a 25% tariff on Indian products linked to India's Russian oil purchases, with the remaining burden reduced to 18% under the deal. However, these plans were disrupted when the US Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) of 1977, on February 20.
New tariff
Talks resumed in April after court's decision
Following the court's decision, Trump announced a flat 10% tariff on imports from all countries for 150 days starting February 24. This development led to the postponement of a meeting between chief negotiators scheduled for February. The talks resumed in April when an Indian delegation led by Jain visited Washington from April 20-23. The current round of talks in New Delhi is likely to build on those discussions amid the changed tariff landscape.
Trade concessions
India agreed to eliminate tariffs on several US goods
Under the proposed arrangement, India had offered to eliminate/reduce tariffs on a range of US industrial products and agricultural goods. These included dried distillers' grains (DDGs), red sorghum for animal feed, tree nuts, fresh and processed fruits, soybean oil, wine and spirits among others. India has also expressed its willingness to buy up to $500 billion worth of US goods over five years including energy products, aircrafts/aircraft components, technology products, precious metals, coking coal etc.