India And US Delegations Continue Their Round Of Negotiations To Clinch The Trade Deal

India and the US teams have concluded the fifth round of talks for the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA) in Washington on July 17, an official said.

The negotiations were held for four days (July 14-17) in Washington, DC.

“The Indian team is coming back,” the official said.

India’s chief negotiator and special secretary in the department of commerce Rajesh Agrawal leads the team for negotiations.

These deliberations are important as both sides are looking at finalising an interim trade deal before August 1, which marks the end of the suspension period of the Trump tariffs imposed on dozens of countries including India (26 per cent).

On April 2 this year, US President Donald Trump announced these high reciprocal tariffs. The implementation of high tariff was immediately suspended for 90 days till July 9 and later till August 1 as America is negotiating trade deals with a number of countries.

Issues related to agriculture and automobiles are learnt to have figured during the fifth round of negotiations. Matters related to ways to deal with non-market economies, and SCOMET (Special Chemicals, Organisms, Materials, Equipment, and Technologies) also came up for discussions.