India & US to finalize broad contours of proposed trade pact: Commerce Ministry

India & US announced to more than double two-way commerce to $500 bn by 2030 & negotiate first tranche of bilateral trade agreement by fall of 2025

- OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: India and the US will sit together in the next couple of weeks to decide on the nature of the proposed trade agreement and finalize its broad contours, a senior official said on Monday.

During the recent visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Washington, India and the US announced to more than double the two-way commerce to $500 billion by 2030 and negotiate the first tranche of a mutually beneficial, multi-sector bilateral trade agreement (BTA) by fall of 2025.

"Give us a couple of weeks to decide what is the level of ambition in the first tranche (of the agreement) that we are looking at and what is the nature of the agreement that we will be arriving at. The two sides will need to sit together and try to finalize the broad contours," Additional Secretary in the Department of Commerce Rajesh Agrawal told reporters here.

The two countries have also agreed to collaborate to enhance bilateral trade by increasing US exports of industrial goods to India and Indian exports of labor-intensive manufactured products to the United States.

The two sides will also work together to increase trade in agricultural goods.