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A team of officials led by Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal is expected to visit Washington next week to resume negotiations for a trade deal, two officials aware of the development told The Indian Express Friday.
This comes after the US team, led by Assistant US Trade Representative (USTR) for South and Central Asia, Brendan Lynch, visited New Delhi earlier this week to meet his Indian counterpart.
Official sources said the talks will also be carried on at the political level by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio when they meet on the sidelines of the UNGA next week. Jaishankar’s travel plans to the US are being worked out and an official announcement is awaited.
On Friday, Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, said, “A team from United States Trade Representative, led by Assistant USTR Brendan Lynch, had meetings at the Ministry of Commerce on September 16 to take forward the ongoing negotiations for a trade deal with the US. The discussions were positive and forward looking covering various aspects of the trade deal. It was decided to intensify efforts to achieve early conclusion of a mutually beneficial trade agreement.”
On September 16, the day the trade talks were held in New Delhi, President Donald Trump telephoned Prime Minister Narendra Modi to wish him on his 75th birthday the next day. Modi responded by saying he was “fully committed” to taking the Indo-US partnership to “new heights”.
The talks in Washington will mark the resumption of the trade negotiations that got stalled when Trump, ramping up pressure on New Delhi, announced last month that he was doubling the tariffs to 50 per cent over India’s purchase of Russian oil.
Indian exporters have begun facing the pinch of the steep tariffs with cancelled orders from the US, especially in labour-intensive sectors such as textiles, footwear, and fisheries.
On Thursday, Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran said that additional US tariffs of 25 per cent on India levied over the purchase of Russian oil would not continue beyond November 30.
Signs of easing trade tensions began emerging earlier this month when Trump said India and US were “continuing negotiations to address the trade barriers”, and he was “certain” there would be “no difficulty” in the talks being successful.
Responding to the remarks, Modi called the two countries “natural partners” who would “work together to secure a brighter, more prosperous future”.
The US, however, asked G7 countries to ramp up pressure on countries buying Russian oil, to end the war in Ukraine, according to a joint statement released by the US Department of the Treasury. The statement said the US had received “commitments” from G7 countries to increase sanctions pressure on Russian oil buyers. China and India are the top buyers of Russian oil.
SHUBHAJIT ROY
