New Delhi, June 15 (IANS). India and America are going to intensify talks to take forward the proposed interim trade agreement. A delegation of senior officials from the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) will arrive in New Delhi on June 23-24, where high-level discussions will be held to finalize the first phase of the agreement. This information was given by a senior government official on Monday.
During the monthly trade data briefing, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Aggarwal said that the USTR delegation will interact with Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and senior officials of India during their visit.
“Our expectation is that the discussions will focus on finalizing the first phase of the agreement as well as the Comprehensive Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) that is already being negotiated between the two countries,” Aggarwal said.
He said the aim of the talks is not only to complete the interim agreement but also to make progress towards the proposed comprehensive trade agreement between India and the US.
The visit follows talks held in New Delhi earlier this month, when a USTR delegation discussed various aspects of the proposed trade agreement with Indian officials.
Following those meetings between June 2 and 4, the government had said the two sides discussed trade in goods, non-tariff barriers, customs and trade facilitation, economic security cooperation and other issues of mutual interest.
India and the US had earlier issued a joint statement in February, presenting a blueprint for an interim agreement based on reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade for both countries.
Furthermore, in that framework both countries also reiterated their commitment to continue negotiations on a comprehensive bilateral trade agreement.
In early June, US Ambassador to India Sergio Gore had said that the India-US trade agreement was almost 99 percent ready and only a few issues remained to be resolved.
He had said that officials of both the countries are in continuous talks and are committed to completing the agreement soon. He called it a ‘win-win’ agreement for both India and America.
The visit of the upcoming USTR delegation is expected to give new impetus to the negotiations and bring the two countries closer to finalizing the trade agreement.
–IANS
DBP
