India on Thursday said the engagement between New Delhi and Washington on the trade deal is “ongoing and constructive” with both sides working towards a “mutually beneficial” agreement.
At the weekly media briefing, Spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Randhir Jaiswal underlined that the negotiations between the two countries is also focussed on addressing “mutual concerns”.
“Engagements are ongoing and constructive. Both sides are working towards a balanced, mutually beneficial and forward premium trade agreement that takes into account each other’s concerns and priorities and to reach a trade target of $500 billion by 2030 so that is where we are on the welcome trade agreement,” Jaiswal said.
This comes as the Indian team led by Darpan Jain, Additional Secretary in the Commerce Ministry, concluded its three-day visit to the US to fine tune the trade deal. The Indian delegation engaged with officials from the US Trade Representative (USTR) office, which was led by Brendan Lynch, Assistant USTR for South and Central Asia.
Earlier this week, the Commerce & Industry Minister said the first tranche of the trade deal with the US is almost finalised, and work is on to figure out the mechanism for India to get preferential market access.
“The first tranche of the trade deal with the US is almost finalised. We are now trying to work out the mechanism by which India can get preferential access in the US market compared to our competitors,” the Minister had said.
Earlier this year, India and the US agreed on the framework for an interim bilateral trade pact. As part of the framework, Washington offered to bring down reciprocal tariffs on India to 18 per cent, which was slightly lower than those on competing countries such as Bangladesh, Vietnam and Indonesia. The pact was not formally signed.
After the US Supreme Court invalidated all reciprocal tariffs, the US imposed a uniform tariff of 10 per cent on all trading partners for a period of 90 days.
Published on April 23, 2026