Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday (October 15) said that the first tranche of the India-US Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) has been finalised and is currently undergoing legal drafting and final review.
Legal drafting on the US trade pact
Speaking at the inauguration of Shri Ram College of Commerce’s (SRCC) Centenary Conclave, Goyal expressed hope that the agreement would be operationalised soon, once India secures a competitive advantage over its peer countries.
“The first tranche of the US bilateral trade agreement has been finalised. It’s going through the final contours, the legal drafting, and we hope to be able to finalize that soon and operationalize that once we get a comparable advantage or competitive advantage over our peer countries,” he said.
The minister said his remarks on the US-India pact were consistent with his earlier statements, adding that he had expressed the same views a day ago, a week ago and three months ago.
He also said the India-European Union free trade agreement would be signed in December and was expected to come into force in February or March next year.
US trade pact are moving in the right direction
Later, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said that the negotiations on the US trade pact are moving in the right direction. “Probably we are in a very good zone. We anticipate closing the deal and signing the deal at the earliest possible time,” he said.
Agarwal added that the trade deal has to be signed when the overall tariff structure would be formalised in the US. “So there is parallel work being done in the US also to get back the tariff structure and based on some of the outcomes under (Section) 301, we will progress towards signing the deal at a mutually agreed time,” he said.
Regarding the legal drafting of the pact, Agarwal said it is going on. “The idea is when you do a trade deal, the trade deal has also a very important component that it gives you not only market access in each other’s market, it gives you preferential market access in each other’s market. So in that context, India has to get preferential market access with their competitors. And that is something which will come as a part of the new tariff framework that the US is working on,” the secretary said.
On whether the framework will take into account the US Trade Representative’s Section 301 investigations on concerns related to excess capacity, he said: “I think all other issues will get settled as part of the deal”.
US tariff landscape led to further negotiations
The framework for the first tranche of the India-US trade deal was announced in February, but changes in the US tariff landscape have necessitated further negotiations. India is seeking more favourable tariff rates than those offered to its competitors in the US market.
On October 5, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said negotiations on the trade agreement were still underway, but both sides appeared to have reached a “plateau”, leaving limited scope for further concessions.
India’s exports to the US rose marginally by 0.92% to USD 87.3 billion in the 2025-26 fiscal year despite high tariffs, while imports increased 15.95% to USD 52.9 billion. As a result, India’s trade surplus with the US narrowed to USD 34.4 billion in 2025-26 from USD 40.89 billion in 2024-25.
(With ANI, PTI inputs)
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