As Beijing, Washington dial down, Piyush Goyal to lead team for US trade talks
A 'large Indian trade' delegation led by Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal is set to visit the US for talks next week to potentially finalise the contours of an interim trade agreement between the two countries, a senior government official said Thursday.
The fresh round of trade talks with the US assumes significance as it follows the conclusion of a surprise US-China trade deal that saw substantial reductions in the 'tit-for-tat' tariffs.
'The deal has only resulted in a de-escalation of tensions. But substantial tariffs on China remain. India is focusing on its competitiveness,' an official said in response to a question on the impact of the US-China deal on India.
On the recent action by India to propose retaliatory tariffs against the 25 per cent US duties on steel and aluminium at WTO, the official said that India aimed to reserve the right to retaliate even as negotiations with the US were ongoing. Another official explained that India needed to approach the WTO within 90 days of the US tariffs to retain its right to retaliate.
Notably, Indian steel exporters had told the government that US tariffs have impacted nearly $5-billion worth of exports.
The thaw in US-China tension, which came as a surprise to many in trade policy circles, is seen as a setback for 'China-plus-one' countries — such as India — which may now see fewer benefits from a trade deal with the US than previously anticipated.
Though New Delhi initiated trade talks with Washington DC earlier than Beijing, China quickly resolved key sticking points with the US and sealed an interim deal.
Earlier on Thursday, US President Donald Trump claimed that India had 'offered to drop all tariffs' on the US during negotiations. However, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that any trade deal must be mutually beneficial.
'A trade deal has to work for both countries. That would be our expectation from any trade deal. Until that is done, any judgment will be premature,' Jaishankar said at the opening of Honduran embassy in New Delhi.
Speaking at a business leaders' forum in Doha earlier in the day, Trump had said, 'It is very hard to sell in India… they are offering a deal… willing to literally charge us no tariffs.'
The Indian Express had reported that US demands during the negotiations centred on greater market access, particularly for automobiles, whisky, and certain agricultural products. Indian negotiators, meanwhile, sought improved access for labour-intensive sectors such as textiles and leather.
On digital trade, the US is pushing for greater data access and is challenging India's strict data localisation rules, which require Indian data to be stored domestically. During Trump's first term, disputes over data localisation were a major source of friction between the two nations.
Ravi Dutta Mishra is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, covering policy issues related to trade, commerce, and banking. He has over five years of experience and has previously worked with Mint, CNBC-TV18, and other news outlets. ... Read More
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hans India
15 minutes ago
- Hans India
Strong demand, stable activity in economy
India's economic indicators are becoming more supportive of growth, according to the report released by Motilal Oswal Private Wealth (MOPW) on Friday. The report highlights that several positive trends are emerging on the domestic front, including higher GDP growth, easing inflation, and strong tax GDP grew by 7.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of FY25, which is the highest reading in the last four has remained below 4 per cent for four consecutive months, and GST collections have been rising steadily. These signs indicate strong demand and stable activity in the formal sector of the report also notes that India's policy environment is now moving in a unified direction. Fiscal, monetary, and regulatory policies are all aimed at maintaining growth increased tax exemption limits that came into effect from April 2025 are expected to improve disposable incomes and boost the same time, the government's capital expenditure continues to rise, supporting the investment the global front, the environment remains mixed. In April and May, markets faced worries over tariffs and geopolitical tensions. However, the situation improved with a delay in global tariff implementation and a ceasefire announcement between India and Pakistan. This improved global sentiment has helped global equity markets, with the MSCI World Index reaching record highs. Meanwhile, rising bond yields in Japan and China's shift towards gold show that global investors are moving away from US could become a concern as the US faces refinancing of $9 trillion in debt this a weaker Dollar Index could help emerging markets like India by attracting more foreign investments. In the Indian stock market, valuations have increased as earnings have not grown at the same Nifty-50's one-year forward valuation has risen above its long-term average, and mid and small-cap stocks continue to trade at a premium. This makes careful stock selection and active management more important for investors looking to generate higher returns, the report stated.
Indian Express
19 minutes ago
- Indian Express
No word since last call 2 days, Chhattisgarh parents worry about daughter, her family in Iran
Chhattisgarh prisons department employee Kasim Raza (60) last spoke to his daughter, who lives with her husband and children in Iran, on Wednesday. She told him she was scared and wanted to come back to India amid the escalating Israel-Iran conflict. Since that call, there has been no communication from her. Raza's 29-year-old daughter, Eman, lives in the Iranian city of Qom. Her husband, Madhya Pradesh native Ejaz Zaidi (34), is pursuing maulviyat (traditional Islamic education) in Iran. They have two sons aged five and three. Qom is the city where several Indian students from the Iranian capital of Tehran, which has faced multiple strikes from Israel, have been moved to. While this gave the Raza family some hope that the city is relatively calm, the fact that there has been no communication from their daughter since Wednesday has left them worried. 'The last phone call we got from Eman was on Wednesday, when she said she was scared, that she wanted to come back to India, and that things were not going well in Iran. She and her mother were crying on the phone. I will soon submit a letter to the Indian government through the state government requesting them to make arrangements to get my daughter and her family back home,' Raza told The Indian Express from their home in Raipur. Raza last saw his daughter in 2023, when she had come to India for 45 days and stayed with her parents for a couple of weeks. Raza's wife, Shaheen, said, 'Our son-in-law was to come to India on June 13 for Muharram, but his flight got cancelled due to the ongoing conflict. We saw news that internet has been suspended (in Iran) for safety. We are unable to contact them, so we believe the internet is not working there. This is the first time we are facing such an issue. I got very scared when my grandson told me, yaha pe war chal rahi hai (a war is going on here). They do not understand what a war is!'
Indian Express
19 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Delhi must underline for Washington the grave dangers of Asim Munir's vision of Pakistan
In 2018, in his first term, US President Donald Trump had spelt out, in his typically blunt style, the sense that Rawalpindi and Islamabad had taken advantage of Washington: 'The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools… they give safe haven to terrorists'. This week, he said: 'I love Pakistan'. It would be simplistic to view the unprecedented lunch meeting at the White House between Trump and General Asim Munir — the first time a military leader who is not head of state in Pakistan has been accorded the honour — as a major u-turn. Indeed, India-US ties have been steadily deepening over the last three decades, based on a convergence of economic and strategic interests and shared values, even as the US-Pakistan relationship has grown more volatile. That said, the current moment in international relations is one of flux and Delhi must tread carefully. The Pahalgam attack underscored the grave national security threat that Pakistan-sponsored terrorism continues to present for India. With Operation Sindoor, Delhi has made it clear to both Rawalpindi and the world that it will pierce the shield of 'proxies' and not give in to Pakistan's nuclear blackmail. India has raised the costs of terror in order to ensure that such attacks on its soil are not carried out with impunity. Communicating the new normal it has etched with Pakistan after Pahalgam to its friends abroad is Delhi's challenge. To be sure, Delhi cannot control who Trump chooses to engage, and for what reasons. Pakistan's geography — it shares a 900-km border with Iran — may make it an attractive tactical partner for the US in the current Israel-Iran war. There is speculation that Pakistan's rolling out the red carpet for the privately-owned US cryptocurrency firm, World Liberty Financial (WLF), may have helped ingratiate Munir to the White House — Donald Trump Jr has close ties with WLF. A White House spokesperson has claimed that Munir has proposed Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for his self-proclaimed role — firmly denied by India — in the post Op Sindoor cessation of hostilities. For India, though, the question is less why the Munir-Trump meeting, and more about how to ensure that the red lines it has laid down are respected, including by the US. Just a fortnight before terrorists killed 26 people in Pahalgam after confirming their religion, Munir had reiterated some of the nastiest tropes of the two-nation theory. He called Kashmir Pakistan's 'jugular vein', and reduced the complex and layered identities of the Subcontinent's people to their religion. It is now for Delhi — diplomatically, through the appropriate channels — to remind Washington that Pakistan's Field Marshal is a fundamentalist with an army at his disposal. Delhi has done well so far in standing its ground and making it clear that it will not compromise on its national interest: Even if belatedly, it issued a clear denial of President Trump's claims about mediating the ceasefire. Now, it must underline for Washington the danger that Munir's vision of Pakistan poses for stability in the region and for global order — and why Delhi has drawn some hard red lines.
