India in active dialogue for trade pact with US, EU, Oman: Goyal

India has implemented a number of free trade agreements with developed nations and is in active dialogue for such pacts with nations including the US Oman and the EU Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal saidIndia has implemented trade pacts with Australia the UAE and EFTA bloc It has also signed an agreement with the UKWe have done free trade agreements FTAs with many developed countries in the last three yearsWe are in active dialogue with the US EU Chile Peru New Zealand and Oman the minister told reportersIt clearly shows that India is the favoured and preferred destination both for investment and for bilateral trade he addedGoyal also said that on Thursday with Brazil also he has discussed expanding preferential trade agreement from its current level so that we can in the future penetrate the South American market in a bigger wayThe Indian official team is in Washington at present to hold trade talks with their US counterparts The team will be there till October 17 In February this year leaders of India and the US directed officials to negotiate a proposed Bilateral Trade Agreement BTAThey have fixed a deadline to conclude the first tranche of the pact by the fall OctoberNovember of 2025 So far five rounds of negotiations have been completed Last month Goyal led an official delegation to New York for trade talksThese deliberations are important as the relations between the two countries have been reeling under severe stress after the Trump administration imposed a steep 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods It includes a 25 per cent additional import duty for buying Russian crude oilIndia has described these duties as unfair unjustified and unreasonable The Indian industry has also raised concerns over Trumps new policy on H1B visasHowever the recent phone conversations between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump have raised hopes of a positive outcome from the ongoing negotiations for the trade dealAfter a brief gap Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch held talks with Indian officials in New Delhi on September 16 In that meeting both sides agreed to push for an early and mutually beneficial conclusion of the agreementThe proposed pact aims to more than double the bilateral trade to USD 500 billion by 2030 from the current USD 191 billion The US remained Indias largest trading partner for the fourth consecutive year in 202425 with bilateral trade valued at USD 13184 billion USD 865 billion exports It accounts for about 18 per cent of Indias total goods exports 622 per cent in imports and 1073 per cent in the countrys total merchandise tradeIndias merchandise exports to the US declined by 1193 per cent to USD 546 billion in September due to the high tariffs imposed by Washington while imports increased by 1178 per cent to USD 398 billion during the month according to the commerce ministry dataThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever