Nueva Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the president of the United States, Donald Trump, agreed to advance the negotiations about the Bilateral Commercial Agreement (BTA), Ani reported on Saturday citing Fuentes. The development occurs on the same day that the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Vikram Misri, hinted that New Delhi could be considering the liberalization of tariffs.
This mutually beneficial agreement, ended in February 2025, aims to boost market access, reduce rates and non -tariff barriers, and improve the integration of the supply chain.
To achieve the objectives of the agreement, both leaders have decided to appoint superior representatives to accelerate negotiations, improve commercial relations and promote economic cooperation, the sources revealed.
The BTA is expected to affect several sectors, including goods and services. By increasing access to the market and reduce barriers, the agreement will facilitate the softest commercial flows and create new opportunities for companies on both sides.
India suggests tariff liberalization
A day after Trump claimed that India had agreed to demolish tariffs, Foreign Secretary, Vikram Misri, refused to comment on the comment of the president of the United States. He, however, added that India in recent years had signed several commercial patients with partners based on tariff liberalization.
“There is much interest in the statements that leave the United States. I will not enter that at this time because these are continuous discussions … but I would only indicate it towards the fact that in recent times we have signed bilateral commercial agreements that are based on the liberalization of rates with several partners,” he said.
“There are ongoing discussions with several other partners in these issues now. I think that the ongoing discussions should be seen in that context. That is our general approach and applies to any commitment we have,” he added.
April 2 deadline
The sources indicate that India is optimistic about solving the problem of the rate with the USA. In the coming weeks, ideally before the deadline of April 2.
This was reflected in the mea response on it, which said: “Our goal through the BTA is to strengthen and deepen the bidirectional trade of India-US throughout the sector of goods and services, increase access to the market, reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers, and deepen the integration of the supply chain between the two countries.”
India has already reduced its average applied tariffs for the main nations developed, including Australia, United Arab Emirates, Switzerland and Norway, under recently completed commercial agreements.
Ongoing talks
A delegation, directed by the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal, had visited Washington from March 3 to 6, for discussions with the United States counterpart on the commercial agreement. The conversations were part of a broader initiative to expand bilateral trade to $ 500 billion by 2030, with an approach in key sectors such as energy, defense and technology.
“The Minister of Commerce and Industry (Piyush Goyal) was in the United States and met his counterparts. Our goal through the BTA is to strengthen and deepen the bidirectional trade of India-US in the goods and services sector, increase access to the market, reduce rates and barriers not to the Tariff, and deepen the integration of the supply chain between the two countries,” said Mea Randhir Jaiswal on Friday.