New Delhi: Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday met the US Ambassador to India, Sergio Gor, and American Senator Steve Daines and discussed bilateral issues.
The meeting is important as India and the US are engaged in negotiating a bilateral trade agreement amidst a steep 50 per cent import duty imposed by the Donald Trump administration on Indian goods since August.
“Delighted to again meet my good friends US Senator @SteveDaines and the US Ambassador to India @SergioGor. Had a productive exchange of views on our bilateral relationship,” Goyal said in a social media post.
Last week, the Indian envoy to the US, Vinay Kwatra, also met Senator Daines and discussed the bilateral relationship.
These meetings come amid India and the US’s talks for a Bilateral Trade Agreement.
India is currently being subjected to US tariffs of 50 per cent, even as it has been in talks with Washington since February last year, following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US capital.
India’s Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal asserted last Thursday that the much-anticipated first tranche of India-US BTA is “very near” but stopped short of putting out a timeline.
“Engagements are going on, and negotiating teams are talking virtually on issues which are still pending. But we can’t put a deadline. It’s very near. That will happen as long as both sides are ready, they feel it is the right time to announce,” he told reporters.
India and the US were initially aiming to complete the first tranche of an India-US bilateral trade agreement by fall of 2025, but new developments in the US trade policy landscape, which include tariffs, have altered those plans.
The BTA, formally proposed in February following directives from the leadership of both nations, seeks to more than double bilateral trade, from the current USD 191 billion to USD 500 billion by 2030. Talks were first announced during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington in February 2025.
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had recently claimed that the trade deal between India and the United States did not happen as Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not place a call to Donald Trump.
Soon after, the Ministry of External Affairs said it had been close to a trade deal with the United States on several occasions, and the characterisation by the US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick about it was “not accurate.” “On several occasions, we have been close to a deal. The characterization of these discussions, the reported remarks, is not accurate,” MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
India is actively negotiating trade agreements with several countries, including the US, in a bid to expand trade and secure long-term growth opportunities.
