New Delhi, September 3: India will finalise and announce the details of its Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) with the United States once Washington agrees to provide preferential tariff terms compared with those offered to India’s competitors, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday.
“As soon as the US is able to give us the preferential rate in comparison to our competition, we will finalise the BTA and announce the final details,” Goyal said while addressing a national workshop on the Leveraging FTAs Outreach programme.
Goyal said trade agreements already concluded by India were creating export opportunities for domestic businesses. He said India was also working towards concluding trade agreements with several other countries and regional blocs, including Canada, Mexico, Chile, the Brazil-led Mercosur bloc, the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Israel.
India and the US have been negotiating a mutually beneficial BTA covering areas including market access, digital trade, supply chain resilience, non-tariff barriers and cooperation in strategic sectors.
During US Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer’s visit to New Delhi from June 22 to 24, he and Goyal reviewed key elements of the proposed agreement. Both sides noted progress in the negotiations and reiterated their commitment to an agreement covering businesses, farmers, workers and consumers in both countries.
In February, India and the US announced a framework for an interim agreement on reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade as part of the broader BTA negotiations.
According to trade data for 2025, India’s goods exports to the US stood at USD 103.82 billion, while US goods exports to India were about USD 45.6 billion, taking total bilateral goods trade to USD 149.42 billion.
Bilateral services trade during the year stood at USD 92.23 billion, with India exporting services worth USD 48.67 billion to the US and importing services worth USD 43.56 billion.