12 hours Ago By Samannay Biswas
India has sought to pursue "a good bilateral trade agreement with the United States" trade secretary stated after both countries signed terms of reference for the first phase of the trade deal, Reuters reported. India "hope[s] to negotiate a good bilateral trade agreement with the US," the trade secretary said. Both countries had signed terms of reference for the first phase of a bilateral trade agreement, an Indian trade official told Reuters on Tuesday.
In February, both countries had agreed to commence work on this first phase with the hope to complete it by the end of the year as part of efforts to boost bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030. Regarding the trade agreement, the official mentioned that it was "very good progress," adding that the trade liberalization would cover both tariff and non-tariff barriers. Meanwhile, India also made it clear that it did not negotiate at the "gunpoint," adding that "till the time we can not secure the interest of this country and our people, we do not hurry.
" "We never negotiate at gunpoint. Favorable time constraints provide us the incentive to speak fast. But we don't hurry till the time we cannot reach the interest for our country and our people," Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal had said.
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