New Delhi, June 26 -- LONDON - The agreement exists. Both governments know what it says. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, speaking Thursday at the India Global Forum's UK-India Week 2026 conference in London, confirmed that India and the United States have effectively concluded their trade deal negotiations. What does not exist yet is the single mechanism in American trade law that would give India a binding tariff advantage over the manufacturing economies competing against it. Without that mechanism, the deal stays closed.

if competing economies in Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka paid more to access the American market, India's manufacturers would gain a genuine competitive edge in textiles, pharm...