India trying to finalize trade deal with US

New Delhi: India is trying to negotiate and finalize a trade agree ment with the US, Special Secretary in the Depart ment of Commerce Rajesh Agrawal said on Thursday. Agrawal is also the chief ne gotiator of the proposed India US bilateral trade agreement. The aim is to conclude the first phase of this pact by fall (September-October) of this year.

Before that, the two countries are looking to finalise an interim trade agreement. Agrawal said India has so far implemented more than 14 Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with 26 countries.

"Now we are integrat ing with major markets also... we just concluded an agreement with the UK, we are in an advanced stage of negotiations with the European Union, we are trying to negotiate and finalize a deal with the USA," he said here at an event on ex port logistics. India, he said, is also negotiat ing trade pacts with Latin Ameri can countries including Chile and Peru.

"We have done (trade pact) with Australia and UAE. We are in negotiations with New Zealand. So, the idea now is that we are also integrating in a big way with the major trading partners across the world and major economies...This will create huge op portunities for India also to be come part of the global value chains," he added.

"Our tariffs will be bilaterally cut... People will be able to make long-term investment decisions based on this predictability of tariff," he said. Agrawal also said that the government is working to reduce logistics costs for industry in India. (PTI)