“We are very hopeful that that will get accomplished over the next several weeks, but it’s not going to be years,” U.S. Ambassador to India Sergio Gor said. File
| Photo Credit: PTI
U.S. envoy to India Sergio Gor on Wednesday (June 3, 2026) said India and the United States were trying to resolve the remaining one per cent sticking point in their trade deal and expected the pact to be inked within the next several weeks.
Speaking at Citi’s 2026 India Conference, Mr. Gor said a U.S. trade team is currently in India negotiating the pact.
Top negotiators from India and the U.S. on Tuesday (June 2, 2026) began a three-day round of talks here to finalise the details of the proposed interim trade agreement, an official said.
The framework for the pact was finalised in February. The U.S. team is led by its chief negotiator Brendan Lynch. India’s chief negotiator is Darpan Jain, who is an additional secretary in the Department of Commerce.
“Once that trade deal is finalised…the interim trade deal was there in place. It is that one per cent that we are trying to get across the finish line. So, the leaders can have a signing and put that in stone and in law.
“And so, we are very hopeful that that will get accomplished over the next several weeks, but it’s not going to be years. We are very close to getting that done,” the U.S. envoy said.
He also responded to questions tied to the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) launching two separate Section 301 investigations on March 11 and 12, 2026, covering 60 economies over concerns related to forced labour and excess industrial capacity.
The USTR on June 2 issued its findings in the forced labour investigation and proposed additional tariffs on imports from 60 economies.
Mr. Gor said the tariffs imposed by the U.S. were applied globally and were not targeted specifically in India.
These were tariffs that were applied to everybody, from the European Union to Canada to Mexico, to almost every other country in Asia, including Japan, South Korea, he said.
Published – June 03, 2026 07:32 pm IST

