U.S., India to work toward finalising Interim Agreement with view to concluding BTA: White House fact sheet

U.S. and India aim to finalize an Interim Agreement for a Bilateral Trade Agreement, enhancing mutual trade benefits.

In the coming weeks, the U.S. 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 said.

The two countries will also continue negotiations to address remaining issues, including services and investment, labour and government procurement, it said.

Days after India and the U.S. 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 Agreement).’ The 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 U.S. food and agricultural products.

This includes dried distillers’ grains, red sorghum, tree nuts,and 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 products.

On the ‘Prosperous Path Forward’, the fact sheet said that U.S. President Donald Trump continues to advance the interests of the American people, enhancing market access for American exporters and lowering tariff and non-tariff barriers to protect our economic and national security.

“India 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% on certain autos. India also has a history of imposing highly protectionist non-tariff barriers that have banned and prohibited many U.S. exports to India,” the fact sheet said.