New Delhi: US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor on Wednesday reacted positively to the much-awaited Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA). Speaking on the US-India trade deal, Gor said, "We are 99% there; the last 1% we are working on. We are very optimistic that this will get done. It will be a win-win situation for both the US and India."
Earlier, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that around 99 percent of the negotiations have been completed and only a few issues remain unresolved.
Goyal expressed confidence that the first phase of the agreement will be signed soon. He also indicated that discussions on the second phase of the BTA will continue after the first stage is completed.
The discussions will continue till June 4 and are expected to centre around resolving the last few pending issues.
The proposed agreement is seen as an important step in strengthening economic and trade ties between the two countries. Officials from both sides have already agreed on the broad framework of the deal.
Senior Officials Leading Talks
The US delegation is being led by chief negotiator Brendan Lynch, while India’s team is headed by Darpan Jain, Additional Secretary in the Department of Commerce.
Officials said the current round of talks is mainly focused on legal and technical details before a formal announcement is made.
