India will announce the final details of its trade deal with the United States as soon as Washington is able to give New Delhi a tariff advantage over competing economies, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday.
Speaking at a workshop on leveraging free trade agreements (FTAs), Goyal said India would finalise the trade deal with the US after securing preferential treatment, adding that the country had secured a good deal with the US in every sensitive sector. He also said India's goods exports in August continued to grow, and asked industry associations to set ambitious export targets.
Goyal, who was chairing the National Workshop on Leveraging Free Trade Agreements, also pointed to India's 7.8 per cent GDP growth in the June quarter, calling it "no mean achievement" amid global uncertainty and asking stakeholders not to be swayed by "naysayers," an apparent reference to Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi's recent remark calling India a "dead economy." He said every contribution would help India move from an inward-looking economy to "an international player of significance," as part of a collective effort to make India a 30 trillion dollar economy by 2047.
What the interim trade deal involves
The India-US trade agreement was announced via a Joint Statement by President Donald Trump in early February 2026, following a call between Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in which the two leaders agreed on a framework for an Interim Agreement on reciprocal trade, according to a fact sheet issued by the US Mission in India.
As part of the agreement, the US removed an additional 25 per cent tariff that had been imposed on Indian imports over India's purchases of Russian oil, following India's commitment to halt such purchases. Separately, the US agreed to lower its base Reciprocal Tariff on India from 25 per cent to 18 per cent. Together, these steps take India's effective tariff down from a peak of 50 per cent to 18 per cent.
Under the key terms of the agreement, India will eliminate or reduce tariffs on all US industrial goods and a wide range of American food and agricultural products, including dried distillers' grains, red sorghum, tree nuts, fresh and processed fruit, soybean oil, and wine and spirits. India has also committed to purchasing more than 500 billion dollars worth of American energy, information and communication technology, coal and other products, and to addressing non-tariff barriers in priority sectors. Both countries are also set to negotiate rules of origin and a set of bilateral digital trade rules, per the fact sheet.
Why implementation is still pending
Goyal has repeatedly said the deal will only come into force once the US puts in place a framework that gives India a clear tariff edge over competing manufacturing economies such as Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, China, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
India's agriculture and dairy sectors remain protected under the agreement, while sectors such as MSMEs, textiles, gems and jewellery, leather goods and marine products are expected to benefit once the lower tariff takes effect.
India's merchandise shipments crossed the 200 billion dollar mark for the current financial year by August 21, growing more than 15 per cent, driven by petroleum products, electronics and engineering goods, according to government estimates. The government is targeting 1 trillion dollars in combined goods and services exports this year, building on the 863 billion dollars recorded in the previous fiscal year.
