New Delhi, April 20: Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday that the first tranche of an India–US bilateral trade agreement has “almost been finalised” and that a team from his ministry is in Washington to hold talks. The Indian delegation, led by chief negotiator Darpan Jain, is on a three-day visit from April 20–22 to work out details on market access and other outstanding issues.
“We have almost finalised the free trade agreement, the first tranche of the bilateral trade agreement with them,” Goyal told journalists, saying the discussions in Washington will focus on how India can secure preferential access to the US market compared with competing exporters. “We are trying to work out what would be the mechanism by which India can get preferential market access in the US market compared to our competitors,” he added.
The visit follows an earlier rescheduling of negotiations after the US Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s broad reciprocal tariff hikes, ruling that the executive had exceeded its constitutional authority by invoking emergency powers to impose wide-ranging import duties. A planned Indian delegation visit on February 23 was postponed so both sides could study the implications of that judgment and set a mutually convenient new date.
According to the delegation’s briefings, the tariff landscape shifted after the court ruling: President Trump raised global tariffs from 10 percent to 15 percent, and an earlier US offer to reduce tariffs on Indian goods to 18 percent has been affected by subsequent legal and policy changes. Negotiators will seek clarity on the revised US tariff structure as part of the talks.
The meeting is also expected to address a recent Section 301 investigation launched by the Office of the United States Trade Representative, which last month placed India and China among about 60 economies under review. The probe examines whether policies or practices that fail to effectively ban imports produced with forced labour are unreasonable, discriminatory, or burdensome to US commerce-an issue New Delhi says will figure in the discussions.
IANS
Original Source: https://theshillongtimes.com/2026/04/20/first-tranche-of-india-us-trade-deal-almost-finalised-piyush-goyal/
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Publish Date: 2026-04-20 21:46:00
