The United States and India are moving forward with negotiations on the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA), with a team of high-ranking officials from Washington landing in New Delhi on Tuesday.
With talks expanding to include American farmers’ access to Indian markets, especially for crops like grain sorghum and soy, US Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, reportedly told lawmakers at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, that India has “made the best [offer] we’ve ever received as a country”.
While Greer is said to have admitted that India continues to be cautious about including some crops and opening its agricultural and dairy sectors to the US market, the latest proposal shows New Delhi’s rare willingness to open up.
“They’ve been quite forward-leaning,” he told senators, as per news reports.
India and the US have been engaged in multiple rounds of negotiations for the entire year now, with initial plans to finalise the first tranche of the trade deal by fall of 2025 falling through. The two sides aim to double trade from the current $190 billion to $500 billion by 2030 through the BTA.
However, talks encountered deep waters after US President Donald Trump imposed an additional 25 per cent tariffs on Indian goods from August 27, as a punitive measure for New Delhi’s purchases of Russian crude oil, which Trump said funds Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
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Earlier, Trump’s comments on the US considering imposition of new tariffs on Indian rice to protect its domestic producers created more uncertainty, threatening to delay trade negotiations even further.
Prem Garg, President of the Indian Rice Exporters Federation (IREF), told a leading Indian daily that India’s rice exports follow WTO rules and bilateral guidelines, and since India exports only basmati rice and its varieties to the US, Indian farmers have hardly been impacted by the steep US tariffs of 50 per cent.
Meanwhile, Greer said India could become “a viable alternative market” for American commodities, especially at a time when US farmers face inventories and fluctuating demand from China. “We have to find a way to manage that trade,” he said.
Talking about the progress of US-India trade talks with more optimism than before, Greer said opening market access to countries in Southeast Asia and Europe “strengthen Washington’s hand with major partners such as India” and help farmers secure “structural constant access.”
On zero-tariff commitments for civil aviation parts under the 1979 Aircraft Agreement, he said discussions are “fairly far advanced” and that the US could extend similar treatment if India agrees to reciprocal access.
The US also sees India as a potential buyer of ethanol made from US corn and soy, added Committee Chair Jerry Moran.
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