A team of senior Indian business officials will formally engage in face-to-face discussions with their American counterparts regarding the proposed Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) between India and the United States. This team, led by Chief Trade Negotiator Rajesh Agarwal, will arrive in Washington. The discussions in Washington will take place over three days, starting on April 23.
This is the first in-person meeting following the finalization of the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the agreement, which was signed in March.Last month, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Brendan Lynch visited New Delhi to discuss this issue. In this context, Brendan Lynch’s visit to Delhi is viewed as a positive move to advance the negotiations.
Meanwhile, the upcoming talks set to begin on April 23 will focus on clarifying the protocols for the initial phase of the BTA. Officials have stated that the discussions will determine the level of ambition, regional priorities, and pave the way towards finalizing the agreement.
“Now the ToR will be further developed and implemented,” a senior government official said. It outlines areas such as tariff concessions, non-tariff barriers, rules of origin and customs facilitation.”
Talks will be held on agriculture, IPR, visa
Besides goods and services, the talks are also likely to discuss long-standing regulatory issues including intellectual property rights, visa regime, totalisation agreement (on social security taxes) and government procurement. Agriculture can also be discussed. The officials also confirmed that the timetable for future rounds of talks will be discussed.
Will there be relief in taxes?
Earlier this week, Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said, “India has decided to follow the path of trade liberalisation with the US. If tariff and non-tariff barriers are reduced, it will boost trade growth and open up possibilities of large-scale trade. “In such a situation, it has to be seen whether the US reduces the tariffs imposed on India? If this happens, trade between the two countries will become even easier. At the same time, there is still a lot of time left for the tariff to be implemented. Hopefully, India will get some good news.
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