New Delhi: A negotiating team from India will travel to the US from 20 April till 22 April to discuss the interim bilateral trade agreement with Washington, ThePrint has learnt.
“We are looking to try and finalise the legal agreement, which is the logical follow-up of the joint framework announced on 7 February. We are engaging with them on how to finalise this agreement. Since the IEEPA tariffs are no more…the circumstances have changed, but we are keen to continue a deal with the US,” said a source in the Indian government.
The source added: “We are moving in the direction of recalibrating the agreement and hearing from the other side on how the agreement will be redrafted as the IEEPA (International Economic Emergency Powers Act) tariffs are no more.”
All topics with regards to trade issues between India and the US are expected to be discussed during the three-day visit, which has been delayed by two months.
Darpan Jain, the chief negotiator for India, will lead the team that will include a number of track leads. It will be the first physical meeting between the trade negotiating teams of both countries since October 2025.
The Indian trade negotiation team was scheduled to travel to the US in February, after both countries announced a joint framework for the interim deal, however, the American Supreme Court on 20 February invalidated the tariffs imposed by President Donald J. Trump under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act (IEEPA).
Trump moved quickly to impose 10 percent tariffs under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 on 24 February 2026. However, these tariffs are valid for only 150 days, till the final week of July 2026.
The focus of the negotiations is to establish a pathway for finalising the trade agreement’s legal language within the next few months, another source said, adding that the sense within New Delhi is that the current 10 percent tariffs are transitional and a new architecture should be in place soon. The Indian government is keen to finalise the agreement to ensure that it can be announced as soon as the US implements its new tariff architecture. India has maintained that it is waiting on the manner in which the new US tariff architecture would be imposed before moving forward with any trade deal.
The original deal, announced in February, was set to give India a comparative advantage, with the base tariff rate falling to 18 percent from the earlier 50 percent imposed by the US administration at the end of August 2025.
The 18 percent rate was lower than those imposed on India’s neighbours including Bangladesh and Pakistan, as well as other competitive developing economies including Vietnam.
With the tariff architecture under the IEEPA struck down by the US Supreme Court, all countries now have a flat 10 per cent tariff rate, at least till July 2026.
The trade negotiating team is set to take forward discussions surrounding India-US trade ties. Apart from the 10 percent tariffs, the US last month also moved to open investigations into countries under section 301 or the Trade Act of 1974 for “excess capacity”. Sixteen economies are being investigated under section 301, including India.
The same month, the US also opened a second investigation into forced labour practices against 60 economies including India.
India is set to submit its responses to both investigations by Wednesday, which is the last day for countries to submit their responses.
“The US has initiated investigations involving several countries. Both sides will sit together and discuss how these issues need to be structured and addressed. India and the US will work together to finalise timelines and next steps as part of the ongoing engagement,” the first source said.
The US remains the largest export market for Indian merchandise. The latest numbers published by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry Wednesday showcased that Indian merchandise exports to the US for the previous financial year (FY 2025-2026) amounted to $87.31 billion.
India’s imports from the US also surged in FY26, especially energy products. Trump has been calling for a reduction in the trade surplus that favours India.
India’s merchandise imports from the US grew to $52.9 billion in FY 2025-2026, from $45.6 billion the previous fiscal.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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