Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal, who returned from a week-long US visit on March 8, may travel to Washington again this week to take forward negotiations with top US trade officials, according to official sources. Goyal’s hurried schedule indicates that two sides are making their best efforts to strike a deal before the April 2 date set by US President Donald Trump to implement reciprocal tariffs on most nations, including India.
Hectic activity at the highest levels shows “some kind of an agreement” might be reached between the two sides to avoid any disruption of bilateral trade, the sources said, requesting anonymity.
Goyal is not the only trade minister who is currently engaged in discussions with the US at present. Japan’s Yuji Moto was in the US recently for last-ditch negotiations on tariffs but was denied any concessions regarding higher duties on Tokyo’s exports of automobiles, steel and aluminium.
The Indian government has made it clear that it hasn’t made any tariff reduction commitments to the US yet. Refuting a statement by Trump last week that New Delhi agreed to cut its tariffs “way down”, commerce secretary Sunil Barthwal told a parliamentary committee on Monday that no such pledges have been made. On Tuesday, minister for state for commerce Jitin Prasada told Lok Sabha that India and the US would focus on increasing market access, reducing tariffs and non-tariff barriers and seek to enhance supply chain integration as they embark on negotiations on a bilateral trade agreement (BTA).
During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Washington, India and the US unveiled a plan to more than double the two-way trade to $500 billion by 2030 and agreed that the first tranche of a mutually beneficial, multi-sector BTA would be concluded by the fall of 2025.
During Goyal’s visit to the US between March 3-8, he was believed to have held meetings with US trade representative Jamieson Greer and US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick.
However, there is no official word on Goyal’s itinerary as he plans a second visit to the US.
The commerce ministry officials have been in regular touch with the export promotion councils and industry bodies, seeking their inputs on the current status of trade between India and US in their areas of interest and prospects for the future.
While the details of the nature of the BTA have not been laid down, Lutnick has said recently that the US would like a broad-based trade agreement with India that includes e USTR has already begun a study on tariff and non-tariff barriers that American exporters face across the world.