India-US trade deal: ‘Joint statement to be ready in a few days,’ says Piyush Goyal

NEW DELHI: The India-US trade talks have been a series of developments late into the night and Monday was no different. Having just concluded the EU trade deal, most officials in the commerce department had wound up for the day when US President Donald Trump announced that an understanding on the broad contours had been reached during his call with PM Modi.

The call did generate buzz of an announcement, although it wasn’t clear if it was related to the trade talks. For the last several weeks, officials had maintained that talks had been progressing well and both sides were engaged. But they did not know when a deal was going to be announced although the agreement had more or less been finalised at the official level.

After Trump and Modi went public, officials have been engaged on the next steps. Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said on Tuesday that a joint statement will be released shortly.

Officials indicated that it should be ready in a few days, and will be followed by the vetting of the agreement before it is signed. By all indications, the formalities should be out of the way in a few weeks, unlike what happened with countries such as Malaysia, where it took months.