Goyal likely to visit US for G20 trade ministers meet next month

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal is expected to visit the United States at the end of September this year for the G-20 Trade Ministerial in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, an official said. The two-day ministerial will begin on September 30. The United States holds the 2026 G20 presidency. The official said the Indian trade minister is expected to hold a series of bilateral meetings with his counterparts on the sidelines of the ministerial to discuss ways to boost two-way commerce and investments.

Discussions on a wide array of issues

In a statement in May, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer had said that at the G20 Trade Ministerial this fall, USTR will lead discussions with the ministers on a wide array of issues, including ending forced labour, updating the Most-Favored Nation (MFN) Principle, denouncing weaponisation of trade in food, and addressing structural excess capacity and production.

US President Donald Trump will host the culminating Leaders' Summit on December 14-15 at Trump National Doral in Miami, Florida. The G20, or Group of Twenty, is an international forum that brings together the world's major advanced and emerging economies to discuss and coordinate economic policy. Its participants represent about 85 per cent of global GDP and two-thirds of the world's population. The members of the group include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, and Russia.

Visit of importance for India

Goyal's visit to the US is important as the two countries are negotiating a bilateral trade agreement (BTA). In February, both sides announced finalisation of the framework for the first phase of the pact, but changes in the tariff landscape in the US have led to further negotiations between the two countries on the pact. Recently, Goyal said that the first tranche of the bilateral trade agreement between India and the US will come into operation as soon as the United States is able to ensure that India gets a comparative advantage over its competitors.

The US has imposed an additional 10 per cent tariff on a number of countries, including India, from July 24. Countries including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia are major competitors of India in the US market. Tariff advantage vis-a-vis these nations will give a price competitiveness to the Indian goods in the American market. India exported goods worth about USD 87 billion to the US in 2025-26. Goyal and Greer in June held bilateral talks on issues related to the first phase of the agreement here.