“The U.S. bilateral trade agreement first tranche has been finalised,” Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said while speaking at an event in Delhi. File
| Photo Credit: PTI
The first tranche of the India-U.S. trade deal has been “finalised”, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday (October 15, 2026). He added that what remained were the “final contours” and the legal vetting, and that the deal would be implemented once there was clarity on India’s competitive advantage over its peers.
Mr. Goyal’s comments come soon after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that negotiations on the deal had “plateaued”, with little room remaining for further give and take. Before that, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer remarked that while the two countries were nearing the end of negotiations, he did not “think there’s something imminent”.
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“The U.S. bilateral trade agreement first tranche has been finalised,” Mr. Goyal said while speaking at an event in Delhi. “It’s going through the final contours, the legal drafting, and we hope to be able to finalise that soon and operationalise that once we get comparable advantage or competitive advantage over our peer countries.”
He added that his latest comments were consistent with what he has been saying over the last three months.
The larger Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) was supposed to have been concluded by “Fall 2025” (October-November 2025). An interim agreement on trade, announced in February 2026, was supposed to have been implemented by March-April 2026.
Separately, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal also spoke optimistically about the deal with the U.S.
“We are in a very good zone,” Mr. Agrawal told reporters on Thursday (October 15, 2026). “We anticipate closing the deal and signing the deal at the earliest possible time.”
“So, there is a parallel work being done in the U.S. also to get back the tariff structure and based on some of the outcomes under Section 301, we will progress towards signing the deal at a mutually agreed time,” he added.
The U.S. has levied a 10% tariff on imports from India under an investigation it had carried out under Section 301 of its Trade Act regarding the prevention of imports of goods made using forced labour. A separate Section 301 investigation on excess capacity is currently underway, and could lead to further tariffs.
In September, U.S. President Donald Trump also signed into law an Act that could see tariffs of up to 100% being levied on countries like India that import large amounts of Russian oil and gas. The final tariffs on India are expected to be announced soon.
On the matter, Mr. Barthwal said there could be greater clarity once the agreement is signed.
Earlier this month, Ms. Sitharaman had said that the deal with the U.S. is very rigorously negotiated but that “we would like to believe that both sides have reached a plateau beyond which giving or taking might be very difficult”.
A few days earlier, Mr. Greer remarked that while he thinks the two countries are towards the end of negotiations, “I don’t think there’s something imminent”.
Published – October 15, 2026 03:23 pm IST
