The virtual dialogue at the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA) this week with India and the United States is set to start a zero-to-zero tariff strategy with New Delhi Washington. The two sides cannot even go for item-by-heat equality during these field-specific dialogues, with US President Donald Trump’s “US First” policy push to move around the two sides to move around the overall tariffs.
New Delhi and Washington are scheduled to engage in sector-specific dialogue in the coming weeks, and the first phase of the trade deal between the US and India can be within the 90-day tariff-poses.
According to a report of the NDTV profit, the terms of the context for PACT have been finalized, and further interactions are mainly on video conferencing, although the conversations can be found in the person.
What will be the focus?
Tariff and non-tariff barriers are likely to take precedent when attaining tariff equality around a broad package deal.
The NDTV profit knows, “India and America cannot go for item-by-rights equality during these region-specific dialogues, and the talks can rotate around both sides to shape the deal to bring down the overall tariffs down.”
‘Zero-for-zero’ is unlikely
According to a report by the Press Trust of India (PTI), the deal is unlikely to have zero-to-zero tariff strategies, as the two countries are at various levels of economic development.
Some business experts have suggested that India may propose a ‘zero-to-zero’ tariff strategy to the US to address the mutual tariff hike of President Trump.
However, an official told PTI that zero-to-zero tariffs between the US and the European Union (EU) may be possible because both are developed and advanced nations, but it will not PAN well between India and America. Given India’s relatively low per capita income, it will still need to keep proper tariffs for many types of goods.
The zero-for-zero tariff approach is the one where two nations identify specific product categories and eliminate levy on them, rather than applying a blanket range tariff or applying a broader business deal.
The Indo-American Agreement will always be a “package” deal that may include issues such as goods and non-tariff barriers, “It is” not if it does ‘zero’ in electronics, we will do it in electronics as well. Business agreements do not do so. It is a wrong thinking. “
In February, Delhi-based think tank GTRI suggested that India should propose a zero-to-zero tariff strategy to address the US tariff hike. Under this strategy, it was stated that India could identify tariff lines (or product categories), where it can eliminate import duties for American imports and in return, America should also remove duties on equal number of goods.
While the US is looking at duty concessions in areas such as some industrial goods, automobiles (especially electric vehicles), wine, petrochemical products, dairy, agricultural items such as apples, tree nuts and alfalfa grasses; In India, duties may be deducted for labor-entrants such as appeals, textiles, gems and jewelery, leather, plastic, chemicals, oil seeds, shrimp, and horticulture products.
India-US BTA talks
India and the United States are engaged in talking on a bilateral trade agreement (BTA) from March. The two sides have targeted to end the first phase of the treaty by this year’s collapse (September-October), which is currently more than $ 500 billion from USD from USD from USD to 2030.
The official said, “Work has started for the agreement. India is far ahead of other countries to talk on a trade deal.”
From 2021–22 to 2023-24, America was India’s largest trading partner. This is about 18 percent of India’s total goods exports, 6.22 percent in imports and 10.73 percent in bilateral trade.
Along with the United States, in India in 2023–24 goods were a 35.32 billion USD trade surplus (difference between imports and exports).
