Indian officials accompanying Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal to the US for talks related to trade issues have returned to New Delhi. The minister, however, will be coming back on Friday, sources said.
The team of officials was led by special secretary and chief negotiator for India for the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) with the US Rajesh Agrawal.
During their stay Goyal had a meeting with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and officials from both sides also held discussions. The talks between India and US on trade and tariffs are happening at different levels. Under discussion are issues directly related to trade and developments impacting trade.
BTA negotiations at Core
At the core of India’s efforts is to have an agreement with the US that reduces the 50% tariffs on India’s exports. While the surplus in India’s favour in bilateral trade has invited a 25% additional tariff on India’s exports to the US, another 25% has been imposed for purchase of Russian oil.
The BTA that has been under discussion since March has had five rounds of negotiations. The sixth round of negotiations that were to be held last month were postponed.
To revive the talks a delegation from the US led by its chief negotiator Brendan Lynch was in India on September 16, The return visit of the Indian team led by the minister began on September 22.
At the FE BEst Bank Awards Union Home Minister Amit Shah said, “The talks are in the final stage…and let’s leave this to the wisdom of PM [Narendra Modi] and Commerce Minister [Piyush Goyal]. In a few weeks or so, aspects of this deal will get clearer.”
Piyush Goyal’s outreach to global CEOs
On Wednesday Goyal held meetings with CEOs of top American multinationals and World Bank CEO Ajay Banga.
The minister met Chairman of Warburg Pincus Chip Kaye, CEO of Carlyle Group Harvey Schwartz, chairman and founder of Blackstone Stephen A Schwarzman, FedEx CEO Raj Subramaniam, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna and CEO of port operator DP World Ahmed Bin Sulayem.