In a major boost, the terms of reference for India-US bilateral trade agreement (BTA) have been finalised and the virtual talks for the first tranche will begin soon, additional secretary of the commerce ministry Rajesh Agarwal said on April 15.
Agarwal added that the talks in physical mode for the first tranche of the trade pact will start in May.
Moreover, the Chinese tariffs on the US could increase the inflow of US agricultural goods into India, additional secretary L Satya Srinivas said.
Commerce secretary Sunil Barthwal said the government is yet to analyse the impact on exports of the 10 percent baseline tariffs and certain sectoral tariffs that have kicked in.
"On how trade will be impacted, we have to see whether there will be exemptions in reciprocal tariffs and how different countries are entering in trade deal with US."
Meanwhile, India's overall exports have touched its highest ever at $820 billion dollar in FY25, the commerce secretary said.
"Merchandise exports have reached $437.42 billion in FY25, the growth is in positive zone," the he said.
Barthwal said that despite World Trade Organisation's (WTO's) pessimistic outlook on global trade, India has done "much better" than the globe in FY25.
The overall imports stood at $915.19 billion, leading to a trade deficit growth of over 20 percent in FY25 compared to the previous financial year.
The overall merchandise exports stood at $437.42 billion in the March 31 ended year, compared to $437.07 billion in the year-ago period.
Services exports saw a marginal jump to $383.51 billion in the reported year over $341.06 billion in the year-ago period.
In terms of imports, the merchandise figures jumped to $720.24 billion, while services stood at $194.95 billion.