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The next few months is going to see a flurry of activity, with various teams of Indian negotiators actively seeking to sign new trade agreements with countries and regions such as the U.S. and European Union (EU) and amend the existing deal with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), according to government officials.
During a press briefing on Tuesday (July 15, 2025), senior officials in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said that India was seeing “good progress” in its negotiations with the EU, and less satisfactory progress on the review of the free trade agreement with the ASEAN. They also said that the Fall deadline for a Bilateral Investment Treaty with the U.S. was still in place.
“With regard to the EU, we have just finished the 12th round last week that was on Friday,” Special Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry Satya Srinivas said. “We have exchanged our market access offers on services and non-services.”
Mr. Srinivas said that the negotiators on both sides could close a “couple of chapters” of the deal and that they held long discussions on other chapters where there was a divergence.
“We had some sort of understanding that emerged on a few of those divergent issues,” he added. “All in all, it was a very productive round. I think we did cover a large number of areas and it will be the EU’s turn to come to India for the next round in the first week of September.”
Regarding the India-U.S. trade deal, the Commerce Ministry officials confirmed that a team from India is currently in Washington to negotiate the deal, their third such visit in the last few months. They reiterated the Fall deadline for the conclusion of a Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA).
The Hindu has learnt that the Indian team has taken sectoral specialists this time around to address minute issues.
According to sources, U.S. President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariff letters over the last week haven’t had any effect so far.
“If you look at the tariffs today, there are only announcements of tariffs,” a source aware of the negotiations told The Hindu. “They have not come into effect. Except for the 10% baseline tariff, which is applicable for all countries, no other reciprocal tariff is there for any other country, except for China. China has got a 20% fentanyl tariff over and above this 10% baseline tariff.”
Apart from this, the U.S. has imposed sectoral tariffs on iron, steel, auto, and auto components, which range from 25-50%.
“The U.S. trade data shows that the fall in imports the country has faced are largely in these sectors, and in imports from China,” the source further said. “U.S. imports from all other countries are either staying the same or growing.”
Special Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry Rajesh Agrawal said that teams from India and ASEAN have held nine rounds of meetings so far.
“The progress thus far has been chequered and we would have liked much more progress,” Mr Agrawal said. “But the good part is we are moving on many aspects, especially on customs and trade facilitation. We are moving on technical cooperation, and there are discussions around market access.”
He added that the next two rounds are expected to be in New Delhi in August, and in Malaysia in October, respectively.
“We hope in these two rounds we should be able to see good progress and try to reach some kind of conclusion by the time the ASEAN-India Summit takes place in end-October,” he said. “The endeavour is in that direction.”
Published – July 15, 2025 07:22 pm IST
