India actively involved in discussions with US on proposed bilateral trade agreement: Jitin Prasada

With an aim to expand trade and investment, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jitin Prasada has said that India is actively involved in the discussions with the US on the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA).

Prasada said India-US bilateral trade agreement negotiations were launched in March 2025. He said five rounds of negotiations have been held, the last being from July 14-18th, 2025, at Washington. The US team is visiting India from August 25 to hold the next round of trade talks.

Further, he stated ‘To safeguard the interests of farmers and the domestic industry, international trade negotiations allow for the inclusion of sensitive, negative, or exclusion lists -- categories of goods on which limited or no tariff concessions are granted.’ In addition, in case of surge in imports and injury to the domestic industry, a country is allowed to take recourse to trade remedial measures such as anti-dumping and safeguards on imports.

During 2021-25, the US was India's largest trading partner. The US accounts for about 18% of India's total goods exports, 6.22% in imports, and 10.73% in bilateral trade. With America, India had a trade surplus (the difference between imports and exports) of $35.32 billion in goods in 2023-24. It was $41 billion in 2024-25 and $27.7 billion in 2022-23. In 2024-25, bilateral trade between India and the US reached $186 billion. India exported $86.5 billion in goods while importing $45.3 billion.

Besides, he said the US did not accept India's request for consultations under an agreement of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) concerning American tariffs on steel, aluminium, and related derivative products. Moreover, he said the US has maintained that these measures were introduced on the grounds of national security. India, however, considers these measures to be safeguard actions that should have been notified and subjected to consultations under the WTO's Agreement on Safeguards (AoS). He said India has accordingly reserved its right to suspend substantially equivalent concessions (right to impose equal trade measures in response) due to the US's non-compliance with its obligations under the AoS.