India-U.S. trade deal: Likely to finalise and sign joint statement in ‘four to five days’, Piyush Goyal says

India and the U.S. will “finalise and sign” a joint statement regarding the first tranche of a Bilateral Trade Agreement in the next 4-5 days, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday (February 5, 2026). He added that the U.S.’ reduction of tariffs on India from 50% to 18% will come through an executive order issued by the U.S. President following this joint statement.

India, on the other hand, will be legally allowed to reduce tariffs on U.S. imports only after the signing of the legal and formal agreement, which is expected to take place in mid-March, Mr. Goyal and Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said.

18% tariffs for India soon

“Meaningful talks are going on between India and the U.S. on the decisions that were announced by the leaders of the two countries,” Mr. Goyal told reporters on Thursday (February 5, 2026). “The first tranche of the Bilateral Trade Agreement is nearly ready. Our hope is that a joint statement between India and the U.S. will be finalised and signed in the next 4-5 days.

Mr. Goyal added that the formal, legal agreement is also simultaneously being readied, but could take longer to be finalised.

“We estimate that the formal agreement will be signed in mid-March,” Mr. Goyal said. “However, the 18% U.S. tariffs will become operational following an executive order [by the U.S. President] after the signing of the joint statement.”

Formal agreement by mid-March

Also speaking to the media at the same event, Mr. Agrawal, who was the chief negotiator of the deal until he took over as Commerce Secretary in October 2025, said that each free trade agreement by India has been followed closely by a joint statement once negotiations have been finalised.

“Once the joint statement is there, it needs to be converted into a legal agreement,” Mr. Agrawal explained. “The legal agreement will give us the authority to reduce our tariffs. Their tariffs are executive tariffs [and so can be amended by executive orders]. Our tariffs are Most-Favoured Nation (MFN) tariffs that can only be cut after the legal agreement has been signed.”

MFN tariffs are those that World Trade Organisation (WTO) members impose on goods from other member nations.

India’s $500 billion imports from U.S.

Regarding India’s commitment to buy $500 billion of goods from the U.S., Mr Goyal said that India’s growth would require large volumes of energy, data centre equipment, information and communication technology (ICT) products, and aircraft and their parts.

“Therefore, when we estimated what we would need from the U.S., we came to a figure of at least $500 billion, which we can clearly see before our eyes as potential that we can import from the U.S. over the next 5 years” Mr. Goyal said.

He said that India’s current orders and those soon to be placed with U.S. aircraft manufacturer Boeing stands at about $70-80 billion.

“You add the engines and other spare parts and it will probably cross $100 billion,” Mr. Goyal asserted. “Data centres have been given huge concessions in the Budget. Now imagine if we get $100-150 billion of investments in data centres, we would obviously need equipment for those data centres.”

Mr. Agrawal, too, added that India’s current imports of all of these critical items from the world stand at more than $300 billion.

“In the next five years, these purchases are going to be over $2 trillion,” Mr. Agrawal said. “If we are able to buy $500 billion from the U.S., this will only add to our diversification.”