The negotiators searched for the PMO intervention on the completion of the first trancho of India-USA-Bilateral trade agreements (BTA), because President Donald Trump did not accept or cover the agreement even after the approval of the United States trader, people who spoke of anonymity said.
While the initial working time was 8 July, the US has now extended the window until the end of the month with regard to the complexity of unresolved items and developing business attitudes within the second Trump Administration. He has already issued letters to 22 other countries and published new reciprocal rates up to 50%.
In the Indian team, concerns led by the main negotiator Rajesh Agarwal, a special secretary of the Ministry of Trade, the constant insistence of the US for deeper access to the market for its agricultural exports and other sensitive products.
The Indian team, who quoted the case of the European Association of Free Trade (EFTA), explained in detail to its American counterparts about the inability of India to open these sensitive sectors, a position accepted by Switzerland, Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway.
India remains solid
Probably a dozen Indian negotiators, including the Minister of Commerce Agarwal and the common secretary Darpan Jain, will soon go to Washington DC to close the remaining gaps with his American counterparts.
“The team will be in Washington for one week to negotiate sticky questions. The highest office instructions were sought to gain more clarity for key objects such as agriculture, dairy products and genetically modified crops,” said the first two people.
However, India does not plan to open any sector that could affect a large part of the population, the person said.
So far, both parties have held five rounds of personal discussions. The American team, led by Ustr Brendan Lynch, visited India twice for a four-day trip from March 25 and recently from 4 to June 11.
“The US Party is a company that any agreement must reflect real profits for its farmers and agricultural outlets. We have already made considerable offers across pharmaceuticals, tariff rationalization and even some non -tariff barriers,” the other person said.
“But we need a political direction about agriculture, how far we can go without hurting domestic producers,” the person added.
A decisive round early
The US business delegation is expected to return to Nový Dilli in the third week of July for what the Ministry of Trade officials describe as a probable “decisive round” of negotiations.
“The last leg is always the hardest in any business negotiation. There is a wide deal on digital trade, services, textiles and industrial goods,” the other person said.
Mint 7 July reported that the agreement is unlikely to be completed without direct political intervention to solve some of the remaining sticky problems.
Given that India continues its engagement, the person cited earlier claims that the final decision will follow the national interest and balance business profits with domestic sensitivity. PMO entry, expected at the end of this week, is likely to shape the outlines of the final position of India heading to the final round of interviews, they said.
Questions sent to the Ministry of Commerce and PMO remained unanswered at the time of the report.
“The search for instructions from PMO at this stage signals the strategic weight of the trade agreement in India-USA,” said Vinod Kumar, President of India forum SME. “With sensitive questions such as agriculture, still unresolved, the government wants to ensure that any final obligations in accordance with wider national priorities and political acceptability.”
Meanwhile, the Minister of Agriculture Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on July 7 that a business agreement with the US would be signed, with the interest of Indian farmers.
According to the Ministry of Trade, the export of Indian goods to the US increased by 11.6% for the previous year to $ 86.51 billion in FY25. By comparison, imports from the US increased by 7.42% to $ 45.33 billion.
Trump in April ordered 26% tariff on Indian exports to the US. But before they were carried out, the US President announced a three -month break that ended on 9 July.
At the beginning of this month, however, Trump extended the deadline and introduced tariffs to 1 August and issued letters of revised tariff rates to 22 countries (until 9 July). Brazil faced the highest 50%, while Laos and Myanmar were slapped by 40% of the tariff.
(Tagstotranslate) India American trade agreement
