Goyal's US visit for trade talks to start tomorrow

New Delhi: With India and the US gearing up to start negotiations for a proposed bilateral trade agreement, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal's Washington visit will begin on Monday, according to an official.

Goyal is likely to hold talks with US Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the official said. During the recent visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Washington, India and the US announced their commitment to more than double the two-way commerce to $500 billion by 2030 and negotiate the first tranche of a mutually beneficial, multi-sector Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) by fall of 2025.

Last month, the minister stated that India and the US are committed to increasing bilateral trade to $500 billion and negotiating a "strong" trade agreement within the next 6-8 months. The visit is crucial as US President Donald Trump has announced plans to impose higher tariffs against India. Tariffs are import duties imposed and collected by the government and paid by the companies to bring foreign goods into the country.

Earlier, Goyal said the two countries can offer concessions and duty reductions as their economies complement each other. Normally in a free trade agreement, two trading partners either eliminate or significantly reduce customs duties on the maximum number of goods traded between them. Besides, they ease norms to promote trade in services and boost investments. During the first term of US President Donald Trump, the two countries discussed a mini-trade deal, but it was shelved by the Joe Biden administration as they were not in favour of such pacts.

In 2023, the US-India bilateral trade in goods and services stood at $190.08 billion ($123.89 billion in goods and $66.19 billion in services trade). That year, India's merchandise exports to the US stood at $83.77 billion, while imports were $40.12 billion, leaving a trade gap of $43.65 billion in favour of India. The country's services export to America was $36.33 billion in 2023, while imports stood at $29.86 billion. The trade gap (the difference between imports and exports) was $6.47 billion in favour of New Delhi.

During 2021-24, America was India's largest trading partner. The US is one of the few countries with which India has a trade surplus. In 2023-24, the US remained India's largest trading partner with $119.71 billion in bilateral trade in goods ($77.51 billion worth of exports, $42.19 billion of imports -- $35.31 billion trade surplus). India received $67.8 billion in foreign direct investments from America between April 2000 and September 2024.