India wants US to cut duties for labour-intensive sectors

NEW DELHI: Foreign minister S Jaishankar on Thursday asserted that a trade deal has to be mutually beneficial, and he expected that the proposed agreement with the US should help both countries gain from it.

“These are very complicated negotiations, they are very intricate, and nothing is decided till everything is,” Jaishankar said. The comments come just ahead of commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal ’s meetings with US trade representative Jamieson Greer and US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick.

But any trade deal has to work for both the countries, and I think that would be our expectation from the trade deal, and until that is done, I think any judgment on it would be premature,” he said on the sidelines of an event.

Besides, a team of officials led by India’s chief negotiator Rajesh Agarwal will hold detailed discussions on technical aspects of the proposed bilateral trade agreement , including tariff cuts , removal of non-tariff barriers and rules of origin.

“The talks are continuing, they are progressing very well and a team is slated to go to the US to conduct further talks,” commerce secretary Sunil Barthwal told reporters.

In the past, too, Trump is seen to have spoken out of turn to claim major gains in negotiations even when officials were still busy finalising the rules of engagement.

While India is widely expected to lower tariffs on several products of interest to the US, it also wants duties for labour-intensive sectors such as textiles and leather lowered and EAM S Jaishankar’s comments may have been an indication of that.

How much of India’s demands are accepted are unclear given that the UK managed to get just around 100 items while the US lowered tariffs in return for levies being slashed for nearly 2,500 American goods. Besides, the UK agreed to buy more planes and other goods from the US to narrow the trade gap.

Many trade experts see that as the template for other trade deals as Trump keeps the sword of reciprocal tariffs hanging. Through the discussions, both sides are seeking to take advantage of the 90-day tariff pause that ends on July 9, with an “early deal” also on the horizon to cover a limited set of products.