US team in Delhi to revive trade deal with India, first visit after Trump tariffs stalled BTA talks

A US trade delegation led by Brendan Lynch, Assistant Trade Representative for South and Central Asia, arrived in New Delhi on Monday (Sept 16) night for talks with the commerce ministry on Tuesday. The visit comes amid fresh US tariffs under President Donald Trump and a slight easing of tensions following his exchange of greetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on social media.

This will be the first in-person engagement since negotiations for a trade deal collapsed. Officials in New Delhi said to The Indian Express that the US team is expected to stay only for a day.

Talks had stalled after Washington imposed an additional 25 per cent tariff on Indian goods from August 27 over New Delhi’s purchase of Russian oil. This was in addition to the 25 per cent reciprocal tariffs announced by Trump earlier on August 7.

“India and the US have been engaged in talks at various levels, and the US trade team led by their chief negotiator is reaching India tonight, and we will be holding talks tomorrow to see what the future of talks will be,” India’s chief negotiator and Special Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce, Rajesh Agarwal, told reporters.

Officials cited by The Indian Express said the two countries were close to a trade deal, but talks collapsed when Washington objected to India’s Russian oil imports, which New Delhi argued was a matter of sovereignty.

“It is not a round of negotiation. But we will try to see how we can reach an agreement with the US. We had been talking virtually but we have not made much progress because the environment was not conducive,” one official told The Indian Express.

Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal added: “There have been discussions going through diplomatic level, on level of trade, on level of chief negotiators, on level of ministers. And on the trade front, a team of US trade negotiators would be coming to India for discussions. Further courses of action will also be discussed. But overall, there is a positive frame of mind in both countries with respect to trade issues.”