Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal. (File)
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal’s visit to America starts from Monday. According to an official, India and the US are preparing to start negotiations for the proposed bilateral trade agreement. According to PTI news, Goyal may interact with the US Trade Representative (USTR) Jamison Greer and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik. Last month, the minister said that India and the United States are committed to extending bilateral trade to US $ 500 billion and interacting on a strong trade agreement within the next 6-8 months.
This journey is very important
According to the news, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Washington, India and the United States doubled bilateral commerce by 2030 to US $ 500 billion and mutually profitable by 2025, declared their commitment to interact on the first installment of the multi-regional bilateral trade agreement (BTA). Goyal’s visit is important as US President Donald Trump has announced a plan to impose high tariffs against India. Tariffs are import duties that are imposed and recovered by the government and paid by companies to bring foreign goods to the country.
Both countries can offer these
The Union Minister said before the visit that the two countries can offer concessions and fees cuts, because their economies complement each other. Generally, in a free trade agreement, two business partners eliminate or reduce the customs duty on the maximum number of trade between them. They also make norms easier to promote business in services and promote investment. During the first term of US President Donald Trump, the two countries discussed a mini-trade deal, but which the Biden administration deferred it as they were not in favor of such agreements.
How much is business
In the year 2023, the US-India bilateral trade in goods and services was 190.08 billion US dollars ($ 123.89 billion in goods and US $ 66.19 billion in services). That year, India’s goods export to the US was 83. 77 billion US dollars, while imports were US $ 40. 12 billion US $, which led to a 43. 65 billion US dollar trade deficit in India’s favor. The country’s service exports to the US in 2023 were 36.33 billion US $, while imports were US $ 29. 86 billion US dollars. Trade deficit (difference between imports and exports) was US $ 6.47 billion in favor of New Delhi. During the year 2021-24, the US was India’s largest trading partner.
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