The first package of the proposed Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) between India and the United States — covering reciprocal tariffs, penal taxes on Russian oil purchases, and key market access issues — is nearing closure, a senior official said on Monday.
“We are engaged with the US on the BTA. It has two parts. One part of the negotiations will take time. The other part is a package that can address reciprocal tariffs. We are working on both aspects. The package, which can address reciprocal tariffs, is more or less near closure, and we should get it soon,” the official said.
The US has imposed 25% reciprocal tariffs on Indian imports to bridge the trade gap and another 25% over India’s crude oil purchases from Russia, taking the total additional levy to 50%.
President Donald Trump had said last week that the US is “pretty close” to reaching a “fair trade deal” with India, adding that he would lower tariffs on Indian goods “at some point.”
While the first tranche of the BTA is expected to address immediate concerns of both sides, negotiations will continue on other aspects of the agreement. The deal would be announced jointly by both governments on a mutually agreed date.
India and the US have been negotiating the BTA since March this year, completing six rounds of talks so far — the latest held on October 15–17 in Washington. The decision to sign the pact was taken in February, with the first tranche targeted for completion by this fall. The broader agreement seeks to more than double bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030 from the current $191 billion.
The US goods and services trade with India totalled an estimated $212.3 billion in 2024, up 8.3% ($16.3 billion) from 2023, according to the US Trade Representative’s office. India’s goods exports to the US stood at $87.3 billion, while imports were $41.5 billion. Total services trade was valued at $83.4 billion in 2024, with India exporting $41.6 billion in services to the US and importing $41.8 billion.
On India’s recent move to import cooking gas (LPG) from the US in 2026, the official said: “It was something in the works for a long time. This is in the overall context of keeping the trade with the US. It is not part of any negotiations package per se, but definitely as part of our endeavour to balance trade with the US.”
Higher energy purchases are among the ways India is seeking to address US concerns over a trade balance that remains in New Delhi’s favour.
