With reciprocal tariffs just days away, a team of US officials will be visiting India from Tuesday to take forward the ongoing trade discussions including the scope of the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) that both sides aim to finalise in the next few months.
Both sides are expected to finalise the contours of the BTA and negotiation schedule during three day talks. As the agreement will be in tranches and first tranche to be signed by end of this year, both sides will be initially focusing on goods trade.
“Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch, along with a team of US government officials, will be in India March 25-29 for meetings with Indian interlocutors as part of ongoing bilateral trade discussions,” a statement by the US embassy in India said Monday.
The visit by Lynch will be part of the regular India-US trade-related interactions at the official level, the Indian commerce and industry ministry said.
The visit follows the visit of commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal to the US earlier month with a team of officials. During his week-long visit starting March 4, Goyal held talks with US Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer and US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick.
The US has said it will impose reciprocal tariffs on its trade partners from April 2 and President Donald Trump has ruled out any concessions for India despite New Delhi lowering the tariffs on bourbon whiskey, cars and motorcycles with high capacity engines.
“I have a very good relationship with India, but the only problem I have with India is that they are one of the highest tariffing nations in the world. I believe they are probably going to be lowering those tariffs substantially, but on April 2, we will be charging them the same tariffs they charge us,” Trump said in an interview with US-based Breitbart News last week.
“This visit (by assistant US Trade Representative) reflects the United States’ continued commitment to advancing a productive and balanced trade relationship with India.
We value our ongoing engagement with the Government of India on trade and investment matters and look forward to continuing these discussions in a constructive, equitable, and forward-looking manner,” the US embassy statement said.
The US wants to balance its trade with all major partners and India is one of the priorities.
The U.S. goods trade deficit with India was $45.7 billion in 2024, a 5.4% increase ($2.4 billion) over 2023, according to the office of US Trade Representative (USTR).