Union Minister of Trade, Piyush Goyal, will lead an Indian delegation to Washington on May 17 for critical commercial negotiations aimed at concluding an interim bilateral trade agreement with the United States, an Indian official announced on Tuesday.
The four-day visit, scheduled until May 20, will see Goyal engaging with the US trade representative Jamieson Greer and the trade secretary Howard Litnick while the two nations push to finalize the first phase of the broader trade agreement by September-October.
Conferences will focus on ironing market access, rules of origin and non -tariff obstacles, with chief negotiators from May 19 to 22.
Goyal’s visit follows the diplomatic journey of vice-president JD Vance to New Delhi last month and relies on the bases set during the American visit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February, where the two parties set the goal of finalizing the initial phase of a commercial pact by the fall 2025 and stimulating bilateral trade at $ 500 billion by 2030.
India is put pressure for rights reductions in sectors with high labor intensity such as textiles, gems and jewelry, leather items, shrimps, oil seeds, grapes and bananas. The United States, on the other hand, is looking for concessions on industrial products, electric vehicles, dairy products, wines, petrochemicals and agricultural items such as apples and trees.
The two nations have already launched sectoral talks to eliminate these questions, the proposed agreement covering 19 chapters, in particular prices, services, customs facilitation and non -tariff obstacles. Washington continues to raise concerns about the non -tariff practices of India which claim to limit American exports.
The largest trading partner in India in India – bilateral trade reached $ 129 billion in 2024, India benefiting from an excess of $ 45.7 billion – the issues are raised for Goyal’s visit, because the two countries aim to avoid new tariff climbing and to deepen economic ties under the administration of President Donald.
