New Delhi, July 29 -- The first tranche of the India-US bilateral trade agreement (BTA) will come into operation once the United States ensures that India gets a comparative advantage over competing countries in its neighbourhood and the ASEAN region, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday.

"I have very categorically and on several occasions expressed the confidence that what we have finalised with the US as the first tranche of the bilateral trade agreement... will come into operation as soon as the United States is able to ensure that we get a comparative advantage over our competitors, the countries in our neighbourhood, the countries in the ASEAN region and other countries with whom we compete," Goyal sai...