India, US can offer concessions, duty reductions as economies complement each other: Piyush Goyal
With India and the US preparing to start negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said that the two countries can offer concessions and duty reductions, as their economies complement each other. During the recent visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Washington, India and the US announced their commitment 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.
Goyal said ‘we complement each other, we can give mutual concessions to each other, tariff reductions and make it easier to export and import between the two countries. We have started working on different ideas, engaging with different stakeholders within and outside the government and preparing ourselves for discussions, (which) we hope we will start soon.’ He added that the agreement will open opportunities for the domestic industry to expand trade with the US to $500 billion by 2030.
The minister said ‘we look at this opportunity as a way to make India more competitive, come out with quality products, look at mutual concessions and attractive trading conditions which will support growth both in America and in India’. On reciprocal tariffs, he said India's tariffs are there to protect domestic industry from imports from non-market economies. He said ‘what we are working on is for mutual benefit resolving these issues for both our countries…our situation with the US is different from the situation of many other countries’. Further, he said that there should be no cause of concern to the domestic industry from the trade negotiations with the US, and India should enter these negotiations from a position of strength.
