India remains engaged with US for mutually beneficial trade agreement: Commerce Secretary

He said at a media briefing that India and the US announced a trade deal on February 2, and a Joint Statement for the same was released on February 7.

“On February 7, 2026, the 25% additional ad-valorem tariffs imposed by the U.S. on certain Indian exports citing India’s imports of Russian oil were removed,” he said.

The Commerce Secretary said that pursuant to the US Supreme Court judgement of February 20, 2026 invalidating reciprocal tariffs, the reciprocal tariffs are no longer in force.

“The US Government has issued Executive Orders imposing 10% tariffs pursuant to Section 122 of the Trade Act, 1974 on certain products from all countries. India remains engaged with the US side for a mutually beneficial trade agreement,” he said.

Sources said the US is trying to recreate a tariff architecture globally and once that is created, will be better to sign the trade deal. They added that trade agreement would be signed when a new architecture of tariffs globally is implemented by the US. There were indications earlier that Interim Trade Agreement could be signed in March.

Commerce Ministry officials had said last week that India and the United States remain engaged for a mutually beneficial trade agreement, and there is no hold off in bilateral engagement.

The Ministry rejected reports in sections of the media that talks between India and the United States for a Bilateral Trade Arrangement are on hold.

.The United States and India last month announced that they have reached a framework for an Interim Agreement regarding reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade. The framework reaffirmed the countries’ commitment to the broader US-India Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) negotiations, launched by President Donald J Trump and Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on February 13, 2025, which will include additional market access commitments and support more resilient supply chains.

“We have noted a media report regarding ongoing trade talks with the US. It is denied that there is any hold off in bilateral engagement. It is reiterated that the two sides remain engaged for a mutually beneficial trade agreement,” the Commerce Ministry had said.

In a fresh development, the Donald Trump administration has initiated fresh investigations into alleged “unfair trade practices” by 16 major trading partners, including India, China, and Bangladesh.

The move aims to reinstate tariff pressure following a US Supreme Court ruling last month that declared previous levies illegal.
These inquiries are being carried out under “Section 301” of the Trade Act of 1974. This legislation grants the US Trade Representative the authority to enforce tariffs or other punitive actions against nations found to be using unfair trade practices.

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer indicated that the investigations could result in new tariffs being applied to China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, and Mexico by the coming summer.

The “excess capacity” probe also extends to several other partners, including Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Switzerland, and Norway. Notably, Canada, the second-largest trading partner of the US, was excluded from the list.

The BTA, formally proposed in February 2025, seeks to more than double bilateral trade between India and the US, from the current USD 191 billion to USD 500 billion by 2030.