By Manoj Kumar<\/p>\n
NEW DELHI (Reuters) -The prospects of an interim trade deal between India and the United States before Washington’s August 1 deadline have dimmed, as talks remain deadlocked over tariff cuts on key agricultural and dairy products, two Indian government sources said.<\/p>\n
U.S. President Donald Trump threatened a 26% tariff on Indian imports in April but paused implementation to allow for talks. That pause ends on August 1, though India has yet to receive a formal tariff letter, unlike over 20 other countries.<\/p>\n
India’s trade delegation, led by chief negotiator Rajesh Agrawal, returned from Washington after a fifth round of talks without a breakthrough.<\/p>\n
“An interim deal before August 1 looks difficult, though virtual discussions are ongoing,” one of the Indian government sources said, adding a U.S. delegation was expected to visit New Delhi soon to continue negotiations.<\/p>\n
Talks are stalled as New Delhi is refusing to open its politically-sensitive agriculture and dairy sectors, while Washington is resisting India’s demand for relief from higher tariffs on steel, aluminium and autos.<\/p>\n
Officials are exploring if these issues can be deferred to a later stage, after an interim deal, the second Indian official said.<\/p>\n
Ajay Sahai, director general of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations, warned sectors like gems and jewellery could be hit hard if 26% tariffs are imposed.<\/p>\n
“However, this could be temporary, as both countries aim to sign the deal over time,” he said.<\/p>\n
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC on Monday that the Trump administration was more concerned with the quality of trade agreements than their timing.<\/p>\n
Asked if the deadline could be extended for countries in talks, he said it was up to Trump.<\/p>\n
Indian officials remain hopeful of clinching a broader deal by September or October, in line with what was agreed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump in February.<\/p>\n
“Given that there have been five rounds of negotiations and another U.S. delegation is expected, we remain optimistic about finalising a trade pact,” a third government source said.<\/p>\n
The sources requested anonymity as negotiations are not public.<\/p>\n
The Indian commerce ministry and the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comments.<\/p>\n
(Additional reporting by Sarita Chaganti Singh. Editing by Mark Potter)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Manoj Kumar NEW DELHI (Reuters) -The prospects of an interim trade deal between India and the United…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28363,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,12,2344,3,24280,5338,24279,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-28362","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-india","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-tariff-cuts","13":"tag-trade-deal","14":"tag-trade-delegation","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}