New Delhi: Senior Commerce Ministry officials will meet industry associations and export promotion councils on Tuesday to review the India-US trade performance and discuss recent developments in bilateral trade.
The meeting will be chaired by the ministry’s Additional Secretary Darpan Jain, who is also India’s chief negotiator for the ongoing India-US bilateral trade agreement.
The discussions will cover recent trade trends and sector-wise performance, with representatives from pharmaceuticals, engineering, textiles, agriculture, chemicals, marine products, leather, automobiles, auto components, handicrafts, and plastics industries expected to participate.
Representatives of industry bodies including the CII, the FICCI, Assocham, and the FIEO will also join the deliberations.
The meeting comes ahead of Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal’s planned visit to the US later in September.
Goyal is expected to attend the G20 Trade Ministerial in Milwaukee, beginning September 30, and hold bilateral talks with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
Goyal has recently said the first tranche of the trade agreement will come into operation once the US ensures that Indian exporters receive a comparative advantage over competing countries.
The ministry’s consultations with exporters are therefore expected to provide an assessment of the impact of current tariff conditions and sector-specific concerns ahead of the next round of high-level India-US discussions.
India is in regular touch with the United States over talks on the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA), with both sides committed to the terms of the framework deal that was agreed upon in February, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agarwal said recently.
“Our sense is both sides are completely committed to move ahead and finalise the framework that was agreed in February, and the two countries are in regular contact on the issue,” Agarwal told journalists.
While the two countries had made headway with the first phase of the BTA in February, fresh developments in the US, with new tariff issues cropping up, have created uncertainty.
India’s exports currently face an additional 10 per cent duty under a Section 301 investigation in the US examining alleged forced labour concerns.
“We are engaged with the US side on the trade deal and our contacts are regular,” Agarwal told reporters here.
The US Senate has also passed the sanctions bill, which grants President Donald Trump the authority to levy tariffs of up to 100 per cent on goods exported by top buyers of Russian oil, including India. Western countries see these oil imports helping Russia finance its war against Ukraine. India’s imports of crude from Russia have risen and accounted for more than half of the country’s total oil imports during July.
On this, the Commerce Secretary said: “It is a legislative process of the US, which is underway and is their internal process.”
(IANS)
