India-US "very near" to a bilateral trade deal: Sources

New Delhi [India], October 24 : India and the US are "very near" to finalising the first tranche of the ambitious Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), a government official said on Friday.

The official affirmed that both sides are converging on most of the issues and negotiators of both the countries are sorting out "language of the agreement".

There are not many differences for the countries to reach a resolution, the official claimed.

Talks are progressing well on the agreement and no new issues are acting as hurdle in the negotiations, he further said, adding that both parties are hopeful of the deadline.

On Thursday, negotiators of both countries had a virtual discussion. So far, five rounds of talks have been completed since March for the first phase of the bilateral trade agreement, initially decided to be inked by the "fall of 2025."

The bilateral trade agreement, formally proposed in February following directives from leaders of both countries, aims to more than double trade volumes from the current USD 191 billion to USD 500 billion by 2030.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal was in the United States last month, leading high-level trade negotiations as both nations work toward concluding a comprehensive bilateral trade agreement. Goyal was accompanied by a delegation of senior ministry officials including Special Secretary and India's Chief Negotiator Rajesh Agrawal.

In mid September, a team of United States officials led by Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia, Brendan Lynch, had "positive and forward-looking" discussions with the officials from India's Department of Commerce and it was decided to intensify efforts to achieve early conclusion of a mutually beneficial Trade Agreement.

Over the past few months, India and the US have been negotiating for an interim trade deal. There were reservations from the Indian side on the US demand for opening up the agricultural and dairy sectors. Agriculture and dairy are critical for India as these two sectors provide livelihood opportunities to a large section of people.

Initially, US President Donald Trump announced 25 per cent tariffs on Indian goods that came into effect on August 1, even as there were hopes of an interim India-US trade deal that would have otherwise helped avoid elevated tariffs. A few days later, he imposed another 25 per cent tariff, taking the total to 50 per cent, citing India's continued imports of Russian oil.

The 50% tariffs came into effect on August 27.

US President Donald Trump had imposed reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries with which the US has a trade deficit.

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