India, US may be in position to execute first tranche of BTA by mid-July: Piyush Goyal

Visakhapatnam: India and the US are moving quickly to resolve the remaining issues in negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement (BTA) and could be in a position to execute the first tranche of the pact by around the middle of next month, Union commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday.

Speaking to reporters in the post-event press briefing of the National Workshop on Seafood Exports in Visakhapatnam, Goyal said discussions between the two countries held from June 2-4 were productive and helped advance negotiations.

"We had excellent discussions from 2-4 June. We had a full team of officials from different divisions of trade from USA in Delhi. I also met with them yesterday (Thursday)," Goyal said.

The minister said both sides were making rapid progress in resolving outstanding issues.

"We are fast moving towards closing all the open ends, and I think by sometime by the middle of next month or so we should be in a position to execute a very, very vibrant first tranche," he said.

Goyal said the proposed arrangement would mark only the first phase of a broader bilateral trade agreement between the two countries.

"It is only the first tranche of our bilateral trade agreement, which will give preferential access to India over our competitors," he added.

The comments follow a US trade delegation's visit to New Delhi from Tuesday to Thursday to negotiate the proposed trade pact. The visit was aimed at advancing discussions on the bilateral agreement that both countries are seeking to conclude in phases.

Earlier today, US President Donald Trump, while talking to reporters in the Oval Office, said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a good friend and expressed confidence that the US and India would reach a trade agreement, according to multiple media reports.

Responding to a question about the trade deal being negotiated between the two countries, Trump said India had taken advantage of US policies for years and imposed heavy tariffs.

“They charged tremendous amounts of tariffs to our companies, and we didn't charge them anything,” Trump said.

The talks come at a time when Washington has proposed new tariffs on India and 59 other trading partners, including the UK, the European Union, China and Japan, over what it described as their failure to prohibit imports of goods produced with forced labour.

Under the proposal, India and most other affected economies could face an additional 12.5% tariff, while a smaller group of countries that have taken what the USTR described as stronger measures against forced-labour imports would face a 10% tariff.

The USTR said the acts, policies and practices of these economies related to the "failure to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labour" could be actionable under Section 301(b) of the US Trade Act of 1974 when they burden or restrict US commerce.

Section 301 empowers the US government to investigate and respond to foreign trade practices deemed unfair or inconsistent with trade agreements. The proposed action covers a broad range of trading partners, including some that already have free trade agreements with the US, such as Canada, Mexico and Australia.