Overview
- Senior ministers Piyush Goyal and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer held two days of talks in New Delhi on June 22–24 and officials said the meetings produced substantial progress toward an interim Bilateral Trade Agreement.
- The talks are driven by U.S. legal changes that voided the February framework’s tariff basis and led Washington to impose a temporary 10% global tariff under Section 122 that lapses on July 24.
- The USTR has opened two Section 301 probes and in June proposed an additional 12.5% duty covering India and other countries, and India has until July 7 to file a formal response to that proposal.
- Under the February framework the U.S. had agreed to cut tariffs on Indian goods to about 18% and India offered calibrated market access plus large procurement commitments near USD 500 billion over five years, but those terms now need reworking into a legally durable structure.
- If negotiators fail to settle the tariff architecture and the Section 301 disputes by the July deadline, Indian exporters could lose the preferential edge negotiated earlier and both sides would need a new legal route to keep higher duties in place.