US team may visit India next month for trade talks: Piyush Goyal

New Delhi: The US team is likely to visit India next month for trade talks with their counterparts here, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday.

The Indian side visited Washington, DC, in April for an in-person round of meetings with their US counterparts to finalise the details of the interim pact and take forward the negotiations under the broader bilateral trade agreement (BTA).

When asked if the US chief negotiator for the BTA will accompany US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Goyal said "he's not coming with him, but there is some plan for them to come next month".

Rubio will undertake a four-day visit to India beginning May 23 to further cooperation in the fields of trade, defence and energy. This will be his first visit to India.

India and the US issued a joint statement on February 7 finalising a framework for an interim trade agreement. However, a US Supreme Court ruling struck down all reciprocal tariffs, which had served as the Trump administration's main instrument for negotiating trade deals with partner countries.

Following that, the US imposed 10 per cent additional duties on all imports under Section 122 of the Trade Act for 150 days from February 24 this year. It also opened two probes under Section 301 of the Act against key exporters for their excess production capacities and labour standards. Under Section 122, tariffs of up to 15 per cent can be imposed for a maximum period of 150 days.

However, under Section 301, there is no cap on the duties that can be levied by the US if investigations conclude that measures adopted by trading partners are harming US interests. India has submitted its response to both the investigations, and consultations between the two sides are underway.

Speaking at an event, Goyal said several big US companies have announced investments in India as the country remained a favoured investment destination for the world.

"In the last six months, if I look back at the various commitments that we have seen from American industry, probably the number will be upwards of USD 60 billion. Look at the Amazon data centre commitment, Google data centre commitments. So my gut feeling is that America and India truly are working as natural partners. We complement each other," he said.

He added that India needs to work closely with the US in areas such as technology, innovation, high-precision defence, digital data centres, quantum computing equipment, and medical devices.

"We can provide scale to American innovation in terms of demand aggregation of 1.4 billion aspirational Indians, a rising middle class, rising incomes, growing economy. And therefore, it does not surprise me that in the middle of such a global crisis, we had the Ukraine war already on, we landed up in the West Asia crisis, and we are all witness to the way the world is going through very tumultuous times," he said.

The minister said the current situation is a perfect opportunity for America and India to work together, create more trusted and resilient supply chains.

On testing facilities, he said BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards), Export Inspection Agency, and National Testing Agency, are willing to support industry to set up modern facilities with best of the equipment.

On ways to promote MSMEs, the minister suggested US firms in India to consider paying these units within seven days of after the goods are approved as it will lead to faster cash flow to MSMEs.

Because of this, Goyal said an MSME "can focus on his business. He will probably give you a discount for the early payment. (At present), he is borrowing at twice the rate at which you are borrowing. So this discount will actually make your product more competitive".