Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said India is looking at preferential market access for its products in the US under the trade agreement. This comes as the US is working on a new tariff architecture to replace reciprocal tariffs that were declared illegal by its Supreme Court, impacting most trade deals that Washington has entered into.

“Our relations are very robust. We have a deep strategic partnership on several aspects, on technology, on defence, on trade and on investments, and our approach is that India should get preferential market access,” Goyal said at a press briefing while responding to a question regarding the India-US trade deal.

The country, he said, is sitting on a “very sweet spot” in promoting trade with the US.

“Being the world’s fastest growing economy, India holds huge promise for investors who will continue to look at the India opportunity in greater numbers and greater value in the future,” he added.

Goyal had met US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer last week during the 14th ministerial conference (MC14) of the World Trade Organisation in Cameroon.

The two countries had announced that they had finalised a framework for the first phase of the bilateral trade agreement in February. However, it has not yet been signed.

At the WTO, India had backed the US by agreeing to a 4-5 year extension of a moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmission. However, India was against a permanent moratorium. The US proposal did not move forward because of Brazil’s opposition.

The moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmission has been a subject that has divided developing and developed nations and has been renewed every two years since it was first instituted in 1998.

The US last month launched two Section 301 investigations on several countries, including India. One cited structural excess capacity and overproduction in certain manufacturing sectors, and the second cited failure to prohibit imports of goods produced using “forced” labour. The fast-tracked nature of the investigation could mean that new US tariffs would be in place from May.

Targeting India over “structural excess capacity and production”, USTR said, in 2025, India had a bilateral trade surplus with the United States of $58 billion, and that India’s global goods trade surplus sectors include textiles, health, construction goods, and automotive goods.

“For example, evidence suggests the solar module sector is plagued by excess capacity, including that India’s current module manufacturing is nearly triple the annual domestic demand. India also has created significant excess capacity in petrochemicals, steel, and other industries,” USTR said.