3 min readFeb 21, 2026 04:56 AM IST
United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer is expected to be in India next month for the signing of the first tranche of the India-US trade deal which is scheduled to take effect in April, government officials said Friday.
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This means that the pact with the US will come into effect even before the trade agreements with the UK and EU.
With the US rolling back the additional 25 per cent tariffs imposed on India over its purchase of Russian oil, an Indian delegation is expected to leave for Washington Sunday for three-day talks to complete the legal agreement. This process could be crucial because US trade deals under the Trump administration have been unconventional, posing a challenge for legal teams.
On Friday, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said Indian goods exports rate touched double digits in February and that exporters had begun exploring opportunities in free trade agreement countries, even before the operationalisation of the trade pacts. Indian goods exports in January remained flat, and shipments to the US fell by 22 per cent.
Responding to Opposition criticism that “India got nothing in return” for opening its economy to American products, Goyal said, “All of you here are exporters. Were you happy with the 50% tariff? Was your business prospering? Were your jobs safe? Was Tiruppur able to export apparel? What was happening to your leather industry where lakhs of workers work? What had happened to our marine seafood exports? All labour-intensive sectors were suffering.”
He said businesses will prosper at the 18 per cent rate that India negotiated under the trade pact with the US. It will help boost exports of gems and jewellery, and spices also, he said.
On imports from the US, Goyal said India needs high-tech devices like GPUs (graphics processing units), coking coal and aircraft.
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“We need airplanes in India. As our steel production doubles and is slated to double from 140 million to 300 million tonnes in the next 5-6 years, huge investments, almost Rs 10 lakh crores investments are in the pipeline in the steel industry. That steel will need coking coal… You are all businessmen in this room. Is it better to have two sources of a product or six sources of a product?” he said.
According to a US executive order rolling back additional tariffs on India, India has committed to stop buying Russian oil with a snap-back clause that says a committee of US officials will monitor Indian imports and reimpose the tariffs if India resumes Russian oil purchase.
According to the India-US joint statement, India intends to purchase $500 billion worth of US products annually over five years. Commerce Ministry officials have said that imports could include aircraft, technology items, precious metals, oil and nuclear products. In FY25, India imported $45.62 billion worth of American goods while exports to the US stood at $86.51 billion.
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