Big deal: Why the India-US trade agreement is likely to spell significant gains for both partners
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. After a rocky ride, an India-US trade deal has finally been announced. It follows what was called the “mother of all deals" between India and the EU and Sunday’s long-horizon outline of growth policies as part of India’s budget for 2026-27.
The budget’s emphasis on competitiveness may well have done its own bit of trade diplomacy, prompting the US to reduce its tariffs on Indian exports from a whopping 50% to 18% and finalize the trade deal. The news comes as a huge relief to Indian exporters, who now have preferential access to two of their topmost export markets—the US and EU—along with others like the UAE and UK. While the fine-print of the India-US deal is yet to be seen, the tariff announcement suggests that it will give our exporters an edge over rivals from countries such as Vietnam, for which the US agreed to a tariff reduction from 46% to 20%, or Indonesia, which faces a 19% US tariff.
The deal comes at a time when exporters of labour-intensive products like garments, footwear and leather items were feeling the pinch of high tariffs imposed in 2025. Without this relief, our exports to the US may have dipped. Like all of America’s recent trade deals, this too seems to commit its bilateral partner to large purchases of US goods—worth over $500 billion in our case, including energy, technology and agricultural products, according to US President Donald Trump.
Read on livemint.com