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Informist, Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025

NEW DELHI – Trade Minister Piyush Goyal will visit the US on Monday to take forward the negotiations on the proposed Bilateral Trade Agreement. Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch had visited New Delhi Tuesday for trade talks.

Goyal's delegation plans to take forward the discussions with a view to achieve early conclusion of a mutually beneficial trade agreement, the commerce ministry said in a press statement announcing the visit. Goyal's visit is scheduled just a day after the White House executes its order that mandates companies to pay a fee of $100,000 per year to hire foreign workers under the H1B visa programme. 

The H1B change may limit opportunities for Indian workers in the US. Meanwhile, the external affairs ministry has said that the government is studying the US order to gauge its implication. 

The trade negotiations between India and the US have resumed just past week after US President Donald Trump paused the talks last month following disagreement on the farm sector with the White House cancelling Lynch's visit to New Delhi scheduled for Aug. 25. According to New Delhi, the US wanted access to India's politically- and socially-sensitive farm and dairy sector under the trade deal. New Delhi was unwilling to yield.

While initiating the Bilateral Trade Agreement in February, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump had agreed to conclude a tranche of the deal by the fall of 2025. Time and again, other ministers in the Modi government, including Goyal, have said the two sides will conclude a deal by November.

As the talks resume, it is to be seen how soon a deal is sealed so that Washington removes, or at least lowers, the additional tariffs imposed on Indian goods. While the subject of H1B visa may not feature in the trade deal negotiations, the two sides may take it up it through diplomatic channel. 

Currently, the tariffs cast a long shadow on nearly $50 billion worth of Indian goods exports to the US from labour-intensive sectors such as chemicals and fertilisers, textiles and apparel, gems and jewellery, shrimp and seafood, furniture and beddings, and machinery and mechanical appliances. In the financial year 2024-25 (Apr-Mar), India had exported $86.51 billion worth of goods to the US and had a trade surplus of $40.82 billion. End

US$1 = INR 88.09

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

Reported by Krity Ambey

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

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