India, U.S. Looking for 'Early Mutual Wins' Before Concluding First Phase of Trade Pact

India and the U.S. are exploring opportunities for an interim trade arrangement in goods to secure "early mutual wins" ahead of finalising the first phase of the proposed bilateral trade agreement by the fall of this year. The Commerce Ministry said on Tuesday (April 29, 2025) that both countries have initiated sectoral-level talks and more engagements are planned from May end, per a PTI report.

To give an impetus to the talks, India's chief negotiator, Rajesh Agrawal, Additional Secretary in the Department of Commerce, and Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for South and Central Asia, Brendan Lynch, held three-day talks last week in Washington.

"Initially, we are focusing on goods. The non-tariff barriers being flagged by Indian side included in sectors such as marine," the official said, adding the formal first round of negotiations is expected to start after the May meetings.

These deliberations assume significance as the U.S. has suspended the additional 26 per cent tariffs on India till July 9. Both nations want to take advantage of this window to push the trade talks.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday said that India is likely to be among the first countries to finalise a bilateral trade agreement with the U.S. to avert reciprocal tariffs by President Donald Trump.

"Negotiations with our Asian trading partners are going very well. Vice President (JD) Vance was in India last week and talked about substantial progress. I have mentioned that the negotiations with the Republic of Korea have gone very well. And I think we've had some very substantial negotiations with our Japanese allies," Bessent said during an interview with CNBC's Squawk Box.

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On April 2, the U.S. announced an additional 26 per cent tariff on Indian goods entering the U.S. But, on April 9, the Trump administration announced the suspension of these on India for 90 days until July 9 this year. However, the 10 per cent baseline tariffs imposed on the countries will remain in place.

India is seeking duty concessions for labour-intensive sectors like textiles, gems and jewellery, leather goods, garments, plastics, chemicals, shrimp, oil seeds, chemicals, grapes and bananas in the proposed pact with America.

On the other hand, the U.S. wants duty concessions in sectors like certain industrial goods, automobiles (electric vehicles particularly), wines, petrochemical products, dairy, and agriculture items such as apples and tree nuts, they said. The terms of reference (ToRs) for the BTA have been finalised by India and the U.S. for the proposed agreement, which includes around 19 chapters covering issues such as tariffs, goods, services, rules of origin, non-tariff barriers and customs facilitation.