India-US Trade Agreement: First Tranche Awaits US Assurance for Comparative Advantage

New Delhi: The first tranche of the bilateral trade agreement (BTA) between India and the US will come into operation as soon as Washington is able to ensure that India gets a comparative advantage over its competitors, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said Wednesday.

He also said that as long as India has a comparative advantage or comparable duties, it will continue to grow its exports and continue to leverage the "large US opportunity".

"I have categorically and on several occasions expressed the confidence that what we have finalised with the US as the first tranche of the bilateral trade agreement, which was announced by our leaders on 3rd of February, will come into operation as soon as the United States is able to ensure that we get a comparative advantage over our competitors, the countries in our neighborhood, the countries in the ASEAN region and other countries with whom we compete," Goyal said on the sidelines of an event organised by Assocham.

"For us, as long as we have comparative advantage or comparable duties, India will continue to grow its exports and continue to leverage the large US opportunity," he added.

The minister said India had participated in the Section 301 probes initiated by the US against India and others. While tariffs had been imposed in the case of one probe, the result of the other one was awaited.

On the US bipartisan bill seeking to impose more restrictions on major buyers of Russian energy, which could include India, Goyal said he would not comment on speculation.

He said Indian exports remained resilient despite ongoing global disruptions, including the Red Sea crisis and uncertainty around the Strait of Hormuz, and have grown 15% so far in the current fiscal year (April-July).

Goyal said India's current $4 trillion economy is on track to become a $30 trillion economy by 2047, but warned that the country needs to accelerate investment in innovation and technology to retain its competitive edge.

"We Indians will wait for the success story to mature and by that time it will be too late," he said.