India-US trade negotiations to resume in Washington later this month

An Indian delegation will be travelling to Washington later this month to further discussions on the interim trade pact with the United States (US) in February.

“Highly productive meeting with US Trade Representative Ambassador (Jamieson) Greer to discuss advancing POTUS (President of the US) trade priorities in South and Central Asia. The United States and India have previously agreed to a trade deal, and we look forward to welcoming an Indian delegation to Washington later this month,” US Ambassador to India and Special Envoy to South and Central Asia, Sergio Gor said on X on Thursday.

The travel dates are currently under discussion. This will be the first in-person meeting of the negotiating team, after its visit to Washington DC was postponed over two months ago, amid uncertainty surrounding the tariff situation following the US Supreme Court judgment. 

On February 20, the US Supreme Court revoked President Donald Trump’s authority to use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) for imposing country-specific “reciprocal” tariffs. Thereafter, the US administration imposed a blanket 10 per cent surcharge on all countries for 150 days from February 24.

India and the US had announced a trade deal on February 2 and had planned to sign the pact by March. A joint statement for the same was released on February 7 and the 25 per cent additional ad-valorem tariffs imposed by the US on certain Indian exports due to the country’s Russian oil imports were removed. According to the interim deal, the US had agreed to reduce tariffs on India to 18 per cent. 

Since the Supreme Court judgement, the Indian side has reiterated that it will ‘wait’ to sign the interim trade deal with the US till the administration is ‘ready’ with the new global tariff architecture. The meeting later this month is expected to give clarity on the way forward for the tariffs. Both sides are also expected to finalise details related to the non-tariff barriers and matters related to the US tariff under section 232 — finalised under the interim deal. India is also expected to seek clarity on the Section 301 investigations initiated by the US.