Karnataka IAS officer to serve as Indian chief negotiator for trade talks with US

New Delhi: Karnataka cadre IAS officer of the 2001 batch, Darpan Jain, will serve as the chief negotiator from the Indian side to negotiate the trade deal with the United States.

Jain, currently serving as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, earlier played a key role in several bilateral trade negotiations with multiple countries.

Talks between the two countries are scheduled for December 10 and 11, focusing on all trade-related issues as both nations work to advance the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA).

Earlier, Rajesh Agrawal was serving as the Chief Negotiator, but he has now been appointed as Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce.

As Commerce Secretary, he will supervise the negotiations.

A delegation from the office of the US Trade Representative, led by Deputy US Trade Representative Ambassador Rick Switzer, will visit India from December 9 to 11, 2025.

Both the Indian and US sides are looking forward to make “strong progress” toward addressing the issue of tariffs.

At present, the US has imposed a total of 50 per cent tariffs on imports from India, with 25 per cent of these constituting reciprocal tariffs and another 25 per cent being imposed as a penalty for India’s imports of Russian oil.

Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal recently said the trade talks are progressing well and he was hopeful that the first tranche of the BTA, dealing with tariffs, would be concluded soon.