Overview
- Indian ministers and officials said in mid-November that Washington has promised a comparative tariff advantage for Indian goods under the proposed bilateral trade pact.
- Negotiators are focusing the first tranche on merchandise and customs reform while services and other complex issues are being reserved for later rounds.
- A two‑member U.S. trade team visited India on November 2–3 to advance technical work on customs and trade facilitation, negotiators said.
- Final, binding tariff schedules remain conditional on outcomes of the USTR’s Section 301 investigations into forced labour and structural overcapacity and on how the U.S. formalises a new tariff architecture.
- The talks build on a framework agreed in February 2026 and both sides are targeting closure of the first tranche by the end of the current Indian financial year with a possible leaders’ discussion at the G20 meeting in mid‑December.