First phase of India-US trade deal nearing closure; to address tariff issues: Official

The first phase of the proposed India-US bilateral trade agreement (BTA) is 'nearing closure' and would address the hefty 50 per cent tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on Indian goods, in addition to resolving America's market access issues, a government official said on Monday.

The US has imposed a 25 per cent reciprocal tariff and another 25 per cent on Indian goods entering American markets for buying Russian crude oil.

"We are engaged with the US on the BTA. It has two parts. One part of the negotiations will take time. The other part is a package which can address reciprocal tariffs. We are working on both aspects. The package that can address reciprocal tariffs is more or less near closure, and we should get it soon," the official said.

The official added that the deal is expected to address the issue of a 25 per cent penalty on India; otherwise, the agreement would have no meaning.

The official added that the BTA has multiple packages or tranches, and this will be the first tranche to address the tariffs.

The deal will be announced on a mutually agreed date.

On the issue of India's state-run oil companies signing a one-year deal to import cooking gas LPG from the US in 2026, the official said, "It was something in the works for a long time. This is in the overall context of keeping the trade with the US. It is not part of any negotiations package per se, but definitely as part of our endeavour to balance trade with the US."

The move is seen as an attempt to narrow India's trade surplus with the US -- a sticking point for President Donald Trump, who has slapped a 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods entering America.

India and the US are negotiating a bilateral trade agreement. So far, six rounds of talks have been completed. Both sides have announced plans to finalise the first tranche of the deal by the fall of 2025.

A team of Indian officials, headed by Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal, was in Washington last month to hold trade talks with their US counterparts. The three-day talks ended on October 17.

Negotiations for the pact are important, as relations between the two countries have been under severe strain since the US President Donald Trump administration imposed a steep 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods. It includes a 25 per cent additional import duty for buying Russian crude oil.

The proposed pact aims to more than double the bilateral trade to USD 500 billion by 2030 from the current USD 191 billion.

The US is seeking greater market access for its products such as almonds, pistachios, apples, ethanol and genetically modified commodities.

The US remained India's largest trading partner for the fourth consecutive year in 2024-25, with bilateral trade valued at USD 131.84 billion (USD 86.5 billion exports). It accounts for about 18 per cent of India's total goods exports, 6.22 per cent in imports, and 10.73 per cent in the country's total merchandise trade.

India's merchandise exports to the US declined 11.93 per cent to USD 5.46 billion in September due to the high tariffs imposed by Washington, while imports increased 11.78 per cent to USD 3.98 billion during the month, according to commerce ministry data.

Trump has recently stated that the US is "pretty close" to reaching a "fair trade deal" with India, adding that he will lower tariffs imposed on Indian goods at "some point".

When asked for comments on a bill in the US that would allow Trump to impose tariffs of up to 500 per cent on imports from countries that have trade ties with Russia, the secretary said that all over the world, countries trade with other nations based on their bilateral relationship and economic requirements.

"We have not got into the depth of it. But at the same time, let me tell you (that) as a country, each country all over the world trades with other countries based on their bilateral relationship, based on their economic requirement, and those trade carries on.

"I think our trade decisions will remain guided by that," he added.