A team of US officials visited India earlier this month for talks on the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA), as New Delhi and Washington remain engaged for an early conclusion of the first tranche of the deal, an official said on Tuesday.
However, the agreement was not signed after the US Supreme Court invalidated the legal basis for the preferential tariff mechanism Washington had offered, the experts said. In February this year, the two countries announced that they had finalised a framework for an interim BTA. Subsequent changes to the US tariff regime, however, have affected the negotiations.
The two countries issued a joint statement on February 7 outlining a framework for an interim BTA. India and the US have been negotiating a bilateral trade agreement since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump met in Washington on February 13, 2025.
The two sides discussed issues related to customs and trade facilitation during meetings in New Delhi last week, the official said, requesting anonymity. The US and India have a very consequential relationship which, apart from trade, draws strengths from economic, political and security imperatives, an official said, asking not to be named. Uncertainty created by Washington’s frequent trade measures and the use of tariffs as a negotiating tool had been major hurdles to signing an interim BTA, even though a preliminary draft is almost ready, according to trade experts.
The US government is also keen to finalise the agreement at the earliest, they added. He also pointed to potential cooperation in space, citing NASA’s invitation to ISRO to participate in its Moon Base programme.
India is now awaiting a preferential tariff framework that gives it exporters competitive access compared with exporters from competing countries, they said. Gor said cooperation between the two countries extended from information technology and data centres to pharmaceuticals, defence sales and military exercises.
