India-US Trade Pact Awaits Competitive Advantage, Says Goyal
Pact to be executed once Washington gives New Delhi the right competitive advantage
The India-US trade pact is “done and dusted” and will be executed once Washington gives New Delhi the right competitive advantage over its competitors in the American market, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday. His remarks came at an event organised by the Public Affairs Forum of India in New Delhi, ahead of his visit to the US for the G20 Trade Ministerial from September 30 to October 1 in Wisconsin.
India-US trade pact awaits competitive advantage
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said the trade pact between India and the US is “done and dusted” and will be executed once Washington gives New Delhi the right competitive advantage over its competitors in the American market.
Goyal said India has finalised nine free trade agreements, “and I include the US, which is almost done and dusted.”
“We just have to find the right comparable competitive advantage over our competitor so that we can quickly execute the agreement,” Goyal said, ahead of his visit to the US for the G20 Trade Ministerial, to be held from September 30 to October 1 in Wisconsin.
The minister will also hold a bilateral meeting with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. The progress of negotiations for the pact is expected to be discussed during the deliberations between the two leaders.
Goyal discusses RCEP and EU negotiations
Goyal said India was not part of the original negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). He said the push within the government at the time to join the negotiations would effectively have meant entering into an FTA with China.
He questioned whether such an agreement would have benefited Indian businesses, manufacturers and workers, citing concerns over Chinese exports, dumping goods, lack of transparency and providing subsidies to exporters.
Goyal said India could have extracted more concessions from the EU had the pact been negotiated earlier, when the bloc did not have regulations such as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and deforestation regulations. He also said India aims to give one million seafarers to the world.
A trade deal with Israel, he said, might take time due to the geopolitical situation.
Semiconductor demand and AI technology
Goyal noted that India’s annual semiconductor consumption demand was expected to grow to over $150 billion in the next five years.
He said India was looking to participate across the AI technology stack, from large language models to AI agents, as the government seeks to strengthen the country’s position in emerging technologies.
Goyal also cautioned businesses against relying entirely on AI-generated information without human verification, citing the possibility of inaccurate responses and the risks associated with using such information in professional decision-making.
FTAs and export supply-chain diversification
At the same event, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said India’s expanding network of FTAs can help de-risk export supply chains by enabling Indian exporters to diversify across multiple markets. He said predictable tariffs and processes can make the country more attractive for global supply-chain investments.
“If I am an exporter and I am reaching into a geography which is in ASEAN, I can also now go to Australia, and now with New Zealand FTA I can go to New Zealand also, because it's the same region, same supply chain, but now I have that duty arbitrage, which helps me take risk,” he said.
“Since I am reaching the same product in ten markets, I am de-risking. So that is one way you can de-risk your exports, and that’s important for exports to grow sustainably,” Agrawal said, adding that predictability was a key requirement for companies which FTAs provide.
He said investors need clarity on tariffs and processes when they import inputs from one geography, add value in India and subsequently export to another market.