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A day after India concluded its neogtiations with the European Union on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) which has been dubbed the 'mother of all deals', India is now looking towards a closure on the FTA with the United States.
Sources in the Ministry of External Affairs said that even as the India-EU FTA was being negotiated, negotiations on the India-US deal had made significant progress. They said that the deal could be "finalised any day now". What remains for the two sides is being described as "just the dotting of the Is and the crossing of the Ts". Sources said there has been a robustness in the recent round of negotiations and talks on the deal. In Davos on January 21, US President Donald Trump had expressed confidence over the India-US Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), noting that the two countries are "going to have a good deal", while praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a close friend and respected leader. Trump made this comment following his address at the 56th Annual Summit of the World Economic Forum. "I have great respect for your Prime Minister. He's a fantastic man and a friend of mine, and we are going to have a good deal," Trump said when asked about the India-US trade deal by Moneycontrol. Earlier, India's Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said that the much-anticipated first tranche of the India-US BTA is "very near", but stopped short of providing a timeline. The BTA, formally proposed in February following directives from the leadership of both nations, seeks to more than double bilateral trade, from the current USD 191 billion to USD 500 billion by 2030. Talks were first announced during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Washington in February 2025. On January 9, the Ministry of External Affairs said, "India and the United States were committed to negotiating a bilateral trade agreement with the US as far as far back as of February 13 last year. Since then, two sides have held multiple rounds of negotiations to arrive at a balanced and mutually beneficial trade agreement." Meanwhile, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Tuesday praised the India-EU Trade deal saying that India had come out on top with this deal. "EU is turning to India to try to find a place. The EU is so trade-dependent they need other outlets if they can't keep sending all their stuff to the United States. I've looked at some of the details of the deal so far. I think India comes out on top on this, frankly," he added during his interview with Fox News. According to Greer, India is set to gain enhanced access to European markets and may also benefit from expanded mobility provisions. He highlighted India's competitive advantage, pointing to its low-cost labour and growing manufacturing base. "They get more market access into Europe. It sounds like they have some additional immigration rights. I don't know for sure, but President von der Leyen of the EU has talked about mobility for Indian workers into Europe. So, I think on net, India's going to have a heyday with this," he said. When questioned about the Tariff structure on India in respect to purchasing Russian oil, the US Trade Representative said they expect India to wind down this purchase. "They have made a lot of progress on this. I am in frequent contact with my counterpart in India. I have a great working relationship with him, but they still have ways to go on this point. They like the discount that you get from Russian oil, so it's hard for them. The Treasury Department has put into place, you know, a few weeks ago now, more significant sanctions, so we expect India to continue to wind that down, but we're watching it closely," he said. With India closing the big deal with the EU, it appears that the deal with the US could be the next big trade announcement. (ANI)
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