No trade deal by August 1; India faces higher US tariffs

New Delhi: Indian exporters brace for higher US tariffs from the beginning of the next month as the two sides seem unlikely to sign any trade deal before President Donald Trump’s August 1 tariff deadline.

A team of US trade officials is likely to visit New Delhi from August 25 to take forward the proposed ‘bilateral trade agreement’ negotiations, official sources said. This means that the US-India trade deal is unlikely this month and even next month.

This will be the sixth round of negotiations for the deal, which was announced during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington in February this year.

So far, the two sides have conducted five rounds of negotiations. India’s chief negotiator and special secretary in the Department of Commerce Rajesh Agrawal was in Washington for the talks. From America’s side, the fifth round of the negotiations on the deal was led by Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch.

It has been widely speculated that India and the US would agree for an interim or a mini trade deal before the August 1 deadline of the imposition of higher tariffs.