New Delhi: With the deadline for completing the first trancho of India – the US Bilateral Term Agreement (BTA) has now moved to 31 July, the Ministry of Trade is preparing to send the delegation of higher officials to Washington DC in an effort to close the remaining gaps with their American counterparts, two government officials said.
According to the first official, an Indian team – containing over a dozen representatives from various departments – will be left this Saturday or early next week. The official data must be announced.
It is expected that the visit will mean a final full -fledged bike of negotiations and will prepare the ground for a potential announcement of the agreement before the revised date. The team will be led by the main Indian negotiator and merchant Rajesh Agarwal, a representative of the main negotiator and a joint secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, Darpan Jain and BM Mishr, director and OSD of Trade Minister Piyush Goyal.
“The aim is to conclude a meaningful and balanced agreement before window 31.
The official explained that India was not planning to open its sensitive US industry.
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The US promotes more access to the market for its agricultural exports, including milk, poultry, nuts and processed foods. While India has shown flexibility in areas such as drugs, industrial goods, digital trade and tariffs, the final points of bonding remain agriculture and sanitary affianitarian (SPS) standards where American requirements caused domestic concerns.
“The main challenge is the alignment of our regulatory protection with American expectations without undermining our own producers. It will require political clarity and legal details, and that is exactly what this upcoming round will focus on,” added the second clerk.
A team going to Washington is expected to include higher officials from the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Agriculture, the drugs, legal matters and finance.
Interviews between India and the US previously focused on July 8. The deadline for the first tranš, but it was widespread because of the complex obstacles to the last mile and the need for other internal consultations.
In April, India was slapped with a 26% tariff for its export to the US by President Donald Trump. Before the Trump tariffs, the President announced a three-month pause-Termine, which ended on July 9.
At the beginning of this month, however, Trump extended the deadline for implementation of tariffs to August 1 and issued letters of revised tariff rates to 22 countries (up to 9 July) – Brazil faced the highest at 50%, while Laos and Myanmar were slapped by 40% of the tariff.
India has not yet received such a letter, which is even more important to the US business interviews.
According to the Ministry of Trade, the export of Indian goods to the US in the last financial year (FY25) increased by 11.6%, from $ 77.52 billion in FY24 to $ 86.51 billion in FY25. Imports from the US also increased, but by a smaller margin by 7.42%, during the fiscal year, which ended in March 31, it increased from $ 42.20 billion to $ 45.33 billion.
Questions sent to the Ministry of Commerce remained unanswered until the press.
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