As trade talks commence, India remains hopeful of escaping reciprocal tariffs from US from April 2

With continuous talks to obtain a bilateral trade agreement, India hopes to obtain a mutual tariff for imports that the United States is scheduled to be imposed as of April 2.

Official talks between India and the United States on the proposed bilateral trade agreement began on Wednesday with senior officials from both countries on the table to start discussions on the features of the trade deal, including timelines and reference conditions. The two countries hope to finalize the first segment of the agreement by the fall of 2025.

According to the sources, India has already referred to products that want to reduce the customs tariff. This includes a group of products from the United States including cars such as EVS, bikes, wines, alcohol, as well as some agricultural products from the United States.

The sources said that India is still optimistic that the initial offer and continuous negotiations will give some mutual definitions that US president Donald Trump is planning to impose from next month.

A team of US officials from the United States, led by the Assistant Trade Representative in South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch, along with a team of US government officials, is visiting India from 25 to 29 March.

“According to the directives of the leaders of the two countries, India is still committed to working with the American side in the commercial and economic fields to enhance prosperity and innovation in both India and the United States, and to deepen the supply chain between the two countries.

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington, DC to meet the US President, the two countries agreed to work on BTA and deepen bilateral trade to $ 500 billion by 2030.

A report issued by Emkay Global Financial Services said that India may lose about 6 billion dollars (0.16 % of GDP) in exports to the United States (10 % of the customs tariff), as this increased to about 31 billion dollars in a 25 % tariff.

“While the nature of the implementation of the mutual tariff is unclear, we believe that a wide tariff at the country level by the United States is the most likely scenario, given the complications about the tariff at the sector/commodity levels.” While India can be among the worst countries caused by wide mutual differences, the main sensitive sectors of cars, medicines and electronics are in a much better position than fear, while clothes, precious stones and jewelry are the most exposed.

India’s total exports to us in the fiscal year reached 24 77.5 billion dollars (2.1 % of GDP); The sensitive sectors determined by the report constitute about 1.1 % of GDP.