Overview
- A Reuters report said India rejected a fast-track interim trade agreement during USTR Jamieson Greer’s June visit, citing unnamed officials who said New Delhi wanted stronger preferential tariffs and guarantees against future U.S. levies.
- Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal strongly denied that account on Monday, calling the Reuters story “completely false, baseless and misleading” and saying his meetings with the USTR were “fantastic.”
- Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal told reporters the framework for the first-phase deal is ready and will be signed at the appropriate time, and he said negotiators from both countries remain fully engaged.
- U.S. trade actions are an active constraint: the USTR’s two Section 301 probes into forced labour and excess capacity have proposed additional duties of up to about 12.5 percent and a temporary 10 percent tariff is set to expire on July 24.
- India’s growing trade ties with the UK and EU give New Delhi extra leverage, so negotiators are progressing on text while both sides resolve core differences over market access, agriculture protections and sequencing of concessions.