Will the bilateral trade agreement between India and the United States help reciprocal tariffs?

Exporters are hoping for the ongoing bilateral trade agreement negotiations will keep India from the reciprocal tariffs that the United States has planned to impose from April 2.

According to several industry sources, Indian exporters hope negotiations and promise to reduce US import tariffs will help India avoid reciprocal tariffs US President Donald Trump has threatened to pay for imports into the United States.

Most domestic exporters have also shown support to reduce tariffs, as well as zero for zero tariff strategy as part of discussions on the bilateral trade agreement. Under zero for zero tariff strategy, two countries identify specific products and withdraw tariffs on them.

Recently, the Confederation of the Indian Textile Industry (Qiti) has proposed zero for zero tariff agreement with the United States in the textile and clothing sector.

According to sources, this is one of the issues that can be discussed at a meeting of the Ministry of Commerce with the Export Promotion Councils on Thursday. Minister of Trade and Industry Piush Goyal, who has recently returned from a trip to Washington to discuss the bilateral trade agreement, will also attend a meeting with export promotion councils.

Sources said this was a regular meeting of the Ministry of Commerce to review the problems that exporters and export strengthening strategies face. According to sources, the government could also consider providing more export stimuli to help them move on to the current environment of global uncertainties, in a potential tariff war.

During his visit to the United States last week, Goyal met with US Trade Representative Jameimison Grier and US Secretary of Trade Howard Lunno to initiate discussions on the proposed bilateral trade agreement. India and the United States have agreed to double the bilateral trade to $ 500 billion by 2030 and negotiate the first phase of the bilateral trade agreement by 2025.

While Goyal can visit the United States again, the Trade Ministry is also in talks with stakeholders and through the sectors to understand areas and products where India can offer lower US tariffs as part of the trade agreement.