Washington ready to discuss preferential trade deal with India: US Ambassador
FTAs)," US Ambassador to India Eric M. Garcetti said in an interview. "But I do think that there's an openness in Washington to advance a discussion about preferential trade between our countries.
And so, I look forward to a new government here, and our people stand ready, willing and available to begin those sorts of scoping discussions." Preferential trade agreements and FTAs both seek to liberalize trade, but the former is more focused on specific products or sectors while the latter has a broader coverage. Lowering of tariffs by both countries and India emerging as a low-cost producer in areas like electronics and for components in the clean energy sector would help in scaling up bilateral trade while accelerating India’s economic growth, Garcetti added. These could also help double bilateral trade (comprising both merchandise and services) between India and the US to $400 billion or even $500 billion by the end of decade, he said.
Currently, the US is India's biggest trade partner, with almost 18% or $77.5 billion of India's goods exports going to the country in FY24, a decline of 1% year-on-year in a fiscal that saw India's overall exports shrink by 3%. With $41 billion of imports from the US in the year ended March 2024, India has a merchandise trade surplus with the US the only such instance among India’s top five trading partners. India has trade deficits with the other four top trading partners, namely China, UAE, Russia and Saudi Arabia.
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