Piyush Goyal said an interim trade agreement between India and the US is likely to be signed in March and implemented in April, alongside new trade pacts with the United Kingdom and Oman.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said an interim trade agreement between India and the United States is likely to be signed in March and come into effect in April. He added that India’s free trade agreements with the United Kingdom and Oman are also expected to be operationalised in April, while the pact with New Zealand is likely to be implemented in September.
A three-day meeting between Indian and American officials to finalise the legal text of the interim trade agreement is scheduled to begin in the US on February 23. Earlier this month, India and the United States announced that the framework for the interim deal had been finalised.
Officials said the framework now needs to be translated into a formal legal agreement to be signed by both sides, with India’s delegation to be led by chief negotiator Darpan Jain, a Joint Secretary in the Commerce Ministry.
Under the interim pact, both countries are expected to extend duty concessions on a range of traded goods. The United States has said it will reduce reciprocal tariffs on Indian goods from 25 percent to 18 percent and has already removed the 25 percent punitive tariffs imposed on India over its purchase of Russian crude oil.
This is a developing story.
End of Article
