India-US Trade Deal Talks Progressing Positively, Framework Agreement Ready: Commerce Secretary

New Delhi, July 2026 : India and the United States are making steady progress towards concluding a mutually beneficial bilateral trade agreement, with negotiations moving in the right direction and both sides maintaining a positive outlook, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said on Monday.

Addressing a press conference in the national capital, Agrawal said discussions between the two countries have been constructive and there are no major obstacles in the ongoing negotiations.

“We do not see any challenge in the negotiations. Consultations are progressing in the right direction, and both sides remain optimistic about reaching a mutually beneficial outcome,” the Commerce Secretary said.

He also revealed that the framework for the proposed India-US trade agreement has already been finalised and is ready to be signed at an appropriate time. According to him, trade relations between the two countries continue to expand across multiple sectors, including energy, with India’s imports of oil and other energy products from the United States witnessing steady growth.

The Commerce Secretary’s remarks come amid growing optimism over the proposed Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), which is expected to further strengthen economic ties between the world’s two largest democracies.

Earlier this month, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal had stated that negotiations for the India-US trade pact had entered the final stage, with most of the contentious issues already resolved. He expressed confidence that the agreement would provide India with a competitive advantage in global trade.

Goyal had also said that recent legal and policy developments in Washington were unlikely to affect the negotiations. According to him, key aspects of the agreement, including tariff concessions and market access, have largely been settled.

The minister emphasised that India has consistently sought preferential market access over competing nations, a position that has been acknowledged by the US administration.

Despite higher tariffs imposed in recent years, India’s exports to the United States have remained resilient. Goyal projected that India’s merchandise exports during the April-June quarter of the current financial year would register around 15 per cent year-on-year growth, reflecting strong demand and expanding bilateral trade.

Meanwhile, official US trade data released recently showed that America recorded a $4.1 billion goods trade deficit with India in May, even as the country’s overall trade deficit widened due to declining exports and rising imports.

Among America’s major trading partners, India remained one of the countries with which the United States posted a goods trade deficit. However, the trade gap with India continues to be considerably smaller than that with several other major manufacturing economies in Asia, underlining India’s growing but balanced role in global supply chains.

With negotiations nearing completion, both New Delhi and Washington are expected to continue discussions in the coming weeks to finalise the landmark trade agreement, which is seen as a significant step towards deepening strategic and economic cooperation between the two countries.

(The content of this article is sourced from a news agency and has not been edited by the Mavericknews30 team.)