US, India aim to finalise Interim Agreement ahead of BTA: White House

In the coming weeks the US and India will work toward finalising the interim agreement on trade with a view to concluding a mutually beneficial Bilateral Trade Agreement the White House has saidThe two countries will also continue negotiations to address remaining issues including services and investment labour and government procurement it saidDays after India and the US announced in a joint statement the framework for an Interim Agreement regarding reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade the White House issued a fact sheet on The United States and India Announce Historic Trade Deal Interim AgreementThe fact sheet highlights key terms of the agreement including that India will eliminate or reduce tariffs on all US industrial goods and a wide range of US food and agricultural productsThis includes dried distillers grains red sorghum tree nutsand fresh and processed fruit certain pulses soybean oil wine and spirits and additional products and India has committed to buy more American products and purchase over USD 500 billion of US energy information and communication technology agricultural coal and other productsOn the Prosperous Path Forward the fact sheet said that US President Donald Trump continues to advance the interests of the American people enhancing market access for American exporters and lowering tariff and nontariff barriers to protect our economic and national securityIndia has maintained some of the highest tariffs on the United States of any major world economy with tariffs as high as an average of 37 per cent for agricultural goods and more than 100 per cent on certain autos India also has a history of imposing highly protectionist nontariff barriers that have banned and prohibited many US exports to India the fact sheet saidIn the coming weeks the United States and India will promptly implement this framework and work toward finalising the Interim Agreement with a view to concluding a mutually beneficial BTA to lock in benefits for American workers and businesses it saidThe announcement provides a tangible path forward with India that underscores the Presidents dedication to realising balanced reciprocal trade with an important trading partnerFurther it added that in line with the roadmap set out in the terms of reference for the BTA the United States and India will continue negotiations to address the remaining tariff barriers additional nontariff barriers technical barriers to trade customs and trade facilitation good regulatory practices trade remedies services and investment intellectual property labour environment government procurement and tradedistorting or unfair practices of stateowned enterprisesIt said India will address nontariff barriers that affect bilateral trade in priority areasThe United States and India will negotiate rules of origin that ensure that the agreed benefits accrue predominantly to the United States and IndiaIndia will remove its digital services taxes and committed to negotiate a robust set of bilateral digital trade rules that address discriminatory or burdensome practices and other barriers to digital trade including rules that prohibit the imposition of customs duties on electronic transmissionsThe United States and India committed to strengthening economic security alignment to enhance supply chain resilience and innovation through complementary actions to address nonmarket policies of third parties as well as cooperating on inbound and outbound investment reviews and export controls it said adding that the two countries will significantly increase bilateral trade in technology products and expand joint technology cooperationIt noted that last Friday Trump announced the trade deal with India that will open up the countrys market of over 14 billion people to American productsThe joint statement follows a call between Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week in which the leaders reached a framework for an Interim Agreement on reciprocal trade and reaffirmed their commitment to broader USIndia Bilateral Trade Agreement BTA negotiationsIt noted that Trump agreed to remove the additional 2537 tariff on imports from India in recognition of Indias commitment to stop purchasing Russian oil Accordingly the President signed an Executive Order last Friday removing that additional 25 per cent tariffGiven Indias willingness to align with the United States to confront systemic imbalances in the bilateral trade relationship and shared national security challenges the United States will lower the Reciprocal Tariff on India from 25 per cent to 18 per centThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever