Trade talks with US making fast progress: Goyal

No timeline for completion of negotiations on bilateral trade deal

- DIPAK MONDAL @New Delhi

TALKS on the India-US trade deal is progressing fast, Minister of Commerce and Industries Piyush Goyal said on Saturday. Negotiations are at an advanced stage with Oman as well, while with the European Union and US, they are making fast progress, he said.

Goyal, however, refused to give any timeline for the completion of the US deal even as the extended deadline (August 1) for imposition of the reciprocal tariff is less than a week away. According to commerce ministry sources, a delegation of US negotiators is likely to come to India in the second half of August for talks on the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA). India faces a 26% reciprocal tariff if there is no trade deal by August 1.