US Trade Team to Visit India for Bilateral trade Agreement

A US trade team led by Deputy US Trade Representative Rick Switzer will visit India next week to resolve outstanding issues and finalize the long-pending bilateral trade agreement (BTA) before the end of December,according to a source familiar with the developments.

Switzer and Brendan Lynch, the US chief negotiator for the trade deal with India, are scheduled to meet Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal for final discussions leading up to the agreement. Negotiations began following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US in February.

The meeting occurs shortly after Russian President vladimir Putin’s two-day visit to India, during which the two countries agreed to increase bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2030, up from the current $64 billion, and expand trade in domestic currencies.

Sources indicated the US officials’ visit isn’t a formal negotiation round, suggesting differences will be resolved at a political level. India submitted its final proposal to the US for the agreement last month.

A government official told The Indian Express that the Indian team has not engaged in technical negotiations with the US team in the past month and has shifted its focus to working on a deal with Canada within the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) framework.

India has recently increased its oil imports from the US, narrowing the bilateral trade gap between the two countries from nearly $4 billion in March to $1.5 billion. The trade gap was a key concern raised by the US prior to the start of negotiations.

Commerce secretary Agrawal stated last week that India anticipates finalizing an agreement with the US by year-end. “it is only a matter of time before this decision is taken… it’s a call that will have to be taken at multiple levels.”