Brendan Lynch to visit India amidst tariff talks

Brendan Lynch, the assistant US trade representative for South and Central Asia, will pay a five-day visit to India beginning Tuesday, days before US President Donald Trump's tit-for-tat tariff kicks in.

The senior US trade official is expected to hold talks with Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal besides meeting a number of senior Indian officials.

It is learnt that Indian officials are also hoping to discuss with Lynch the possibility of a waiver for India from the reciprocal tariff temporarily.

It will come into effect on April 2.

The two sides are also expected to hold negotiations to firm up a framework for a bilateral trade pact that would address issues relating to levies and market access.

"Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch, along with a team of US government officials, will be in India from March 25-29 for meetings with Indian interlocutors as part of ongoing bilateral trade discussions," said a US official.

"This visit reflects the United States' continued commitment to advancing a productive and balanced trade relationship with India.

"We value our ongoing engagement with the Government of India on trade and investment matters and look forward to continuing these discussions in a constructive, equitable and forward-looking manner," the official said.

India on Friday said its negotiations with Washington are underway to firm up a framework for a bilateral trade pact that would address issues relating to levies and market access.

India remains engaged with the US Administration at "various levels" to arrive at a mutually beneficial trade agreement, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.

The US president's tariff tussle has stoked fears of a global trade war with many countries already announcing counter-measures to deal with it.

Following talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump in Washington DC last month, the two sides announced the negotiations for the first tranche of the BTA by the fall of 2025.

In line with his "America First" policy, Trump earlier this month announced reciprocal tariffs on its partners and other nations that impose higher levies on imports from the US.

India has reduced its average applied tariffs significantly for key developed countries like Australia, the United Arab Emirates, Switzerland and Norway under recently concluded bilateral trade agreements.

Similar negotiations are currently underway with the European Union and the United Kingdom, among other partners.

The ongoing discussions with the United States should be seen in this context, Indian government sources said a few weeks back.

In its Union budget for 2025-26, India announced its decision to lower tariffs on Bourbon whiskey, wines, and Electronic Vehicle (EV) segments.

The decisions were seen as an attempt to send a signal to the Trump administration that New Delhi is open to bringing down tariffs in specific sectors.

Washington is also pushing New Delhi to buy more American oil, gas and military platforms to bring down the trade deficit that stands at around USD 45 billion in India's favour.

The US was the largest trading partner of India with overall bilateral trade in goods and services amounting to USD 190 billion for the calendar year 2023.

In the financial year 2023-24, the US was the third largest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) into India with inflows of USD 4.99 billion accounting for almost per cent of total FDI equity inflows.