US, India Near Interim Trade Pact Before July 9 Tariff Deadline

U.S. President Donald Trump said on 26 June that Washington had “just signed” a trade agreement with China, but he offered no details and Beijing has yet to publish any text. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick later described the pact as “signed and sealed,” while China’s Commerce Ministry said only that both sides had further confirmed the framework for implementation.

Trump also told the same audience that a “very big” accord with India was on the horizon. On 30 June, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said final agreements were being completed and that the public would hear about the U.S.–India trade deal “very soon.”

According to the Financial Times and Reuters, India aims to seal an interim agreement with the United States as early as this week. Negotiators led by India’s special secretary for trade, Rajesh Agarwal, have extended their stay in Washington to resolve outstanding issues before a 9 July deadline, when a 90-day pause on President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs expires.

People familiar with the talks say the main sticking points are U.S. demands for wider access to India’s agriculture and dairy markets and New Delhi’s bid for lower U.S. duties on labour-intensive exports such as textiles, leather goods and gems. Failure to reach a deal would see U.S. duties on Indian goods rebound to 26 %, raising the risk of renewed trade friction.

Officials on both sides say an interim pact would avert the tariff increase and lay the groundwork for a broader agreement aimed at boosting annual bilateral commerce—currently about US$191 billion—to roughly US$500 billion by 2030.