New Delhi: India and the US have agreed to strengthen the efforts to quickly achieve a mutually beneficial trade agreement, two people who were aware of the development, because both nations recognized the lasting importance of business ties between them.
On Tuesday’s daily discussions between the American trading team led by the main negotiator Brendan Lynch and Indian officials headed by Rajesh Agarwal, a special secretary in the Ministry of Trade, both parties agreed to move the negotiation process.
US President Donald Trump’s decision to impose a repressive 25% obligation on Indian exports to buy Russian oil over and over the mutual tariff of 25%, tense links between the two countries and stop negotiations on business contracts.
The cumulative 50% tariff, efficient 27 August, brought a heavy blow to the work demanding industry, such as textiles, technical goods, gems and jewelry and agricultural products, which made India to promote harder concessions in the proposed agreement.
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“It was decided to intensify the efforts to achieve early conclusion of a mutually beneficial trade agreement,” the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said.
According to the above people, the agenda included long -waiting questions of tariff parity, greater access to the market for Indian goods, such as pharmacies and seafood, and US concerns about quality control orders in India, which Washington has repeatedly described as Netariff barriers.
Exporter relief
For India, the main priority is to gain relief for their exporters who have hardly hit a steep increase in tariffs, while the US promotes wider reforms that can bring greater stability and security for trading in the long term, the first person said.
However, business experts are of the opinion that without withdrawal of another 25% of oil tariffs, the negotiations will not bring any significant outcome, because political and legal coercion in Washington makes it difficult to offer India at this stage.
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“If Washington does not return another 25% tariff associated with Russian oil, it is not possible to achieve meaningful progress. The US almost bound these obligations to its legal case before the Supreme Court, which in the short term almost prevented relief. Research Initiative (Gtri). However, India has shown flexibility by offering a reduction in tariffs to more than 95% of American industrial goods that do not touch its basic red lines, he said.
According to the other person, more intensive rounds of interviews are planned in the coming weeks.
A promise of an early conclusion
The interviews continued after Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed confidence in September that the negotiations would reach an early conclusion.
First, in his contribution to his social platform, the Truth Social platform, Trump said he was pleased that both nations continue to talk about dealing with business barriers and looking forward to an interview with his “very good friend” Modim in the coming weeks. “I feel that both of our big countries will not be a successful conclusion,” he wrote.
In response to Modi, in the paper X, he emphasized the strength of partnerships in India and the US and stressed that the ongoing negotiations would help unlock the “unlimited potential” between the two economies.
At the beginning of this month, Mint reported that the interviews would be restarted and that the first tranches of the agreement would be sealed before the deadline for the leaders of both countries, which is a decline in 2025 – extension to November in the Indian calendar.
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The sixth round of personal interviews on the bilateral trade agreement between India and the US was to be held on August 25.
However, they were partially postponed due to disputes over the opening of Indian markets with farms and dairy products, and after the US have deposited another 25% of Indian exports since August 27. With US tariffs at 50%, India is one of the most penalized American business partners.
India, however, pushed sharply and began to strengthen business ties with other nations, including China.
The Indian Ministry for External Affairs stated that the country was unfairly selected for the purchase of Russian oil, and that, like any main economy, the government would take all the necessary measures to protect Indian national interests and economic security.
(Tagstotranslate) India
