India-US Trade Agreement: Piyush Goyal Provides Key Update After Talks Deferred

The Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday stated that India is in talks to reach a bilateral trade pact with the United States.

"We are in dialogue with the US for a BTA," he said at an industry chamber gathering on sustainability in Delhi.

The two nations India and the US have been attempting to ink a mutually beneficial agreement since March.

After a 50 per cent levy was imposed on August 27, the US delegation expected to visit India for the sixth round of discussion deferred it.

Meanwhile, the fresh dates for the next round of talks to improve bilateral ties is yet to be confirmed.

While Trump has imposed 50 per cent levy on Indian goods, the south Asian nation has reiterated its stance of inking a deal based on mutual consideration.

The officials noted, "The impact (of the tariffs) is unlikely to be as severe as feared given the diversified nature of Indian exports. It is a temporary phase in a long-term relationship," citing media reports.

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Meanwhille, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, "Two great countries will get this solved."

Further, he said, “I think at the end of the day, India is the most populous democracy in the world. Their values are much closer to ours and to China’s than to Russia’s.”

His comments come just hours after US President Donald Trump termed US trade with India a “one-sided disaster”.

Taking to Truth Social, US President Donald Trump said, “What few people understand is that we do very little business with India, but they do a tremendous amount of business with us. In other words, they sell us massive amounts of goods, their biggest ‘client’, but we sell them very little — until now a totally one-sided relationship, and it has been for many decades."

“The reason is that India has charged us, until now, such high tariffs, the most of any country, that our businesses are unable to sell into India. It has been a totally one-sided disaster! Also, India buys most of its oil and military products from Russia, very little from the US. They have now offered to cut their tariffs to nothing, but it’s getting late. They should have done so years ago,” he said.