New Delhi [India], February 16 (ANI): Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday said that the first tranche of the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) with the United States is expected to be concluded by the fall of 2025.

The minister made the remarks at the ET NOW Global Business Summit 2025.

He said that India is expanding its partnerships and forging new ones across the world.

Goyal referred to Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) with EFTA countries - Switzerland, Iceland, Norway & Liechtenstein and talks for trade agreements with other countries.

'The progress we are making in other engagements with Europe and the progress we will soon make with the United States of America as we proceed to finalise a trade deal by fall of this year are all reflective of India's growing relevance on the global stage,' the minister said.

A joint statement issued after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's and US President Donald Trump's meeting in Washington DC, said the leaders resolved to expand trade and investment to make their citizens more prosperous, nations stronger, economies more innovative, and supply chains more resilient.

They resolved to deepen the U.S.-India trade relationship to promote growth that ensures fairness, national security and job creation. To this end, the leaders set a bold new goal for bilateral trade - 'Mission 500' - aiming to more than double total bilateral trade to USD 500 billion by 2030.

'Recognizing that this level of ambition would require new, fair-trade terms, the leaders announced plans to negotiate the first tranche of a mutually beneficial, multi-sector Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) by fall of 2025,' it said.

The statement said the leaders committed to designating senior representatives to advance these negotiations and ensure that the trade relationship fully reflects the aspirations of COMPACT.

'To advance this innovative, wide-ranging BTA, the U.S. and India will take an integrated approach to strengthen and deepen bilateral trade across the goods and services sector, and will work towards increasing market access, reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers, and deepening supply chain integration,' it said.

In his remarks at the event, Piyush Goyal highlighted the five pillars of India's growth story.

'India's rise has been across five important pillars--one, global leadership; two, economy and investments; three, innovation and entrepreneurship; four, infrastructure development and consumption-led growth; and five, women-led development. With all these five pillars, India has been able to showcase an emerging story, which, as the Prime Minister mentioned, is well on track to become the world's third-largest economy in the very near future, much ahead of what was estimated 10 years ago,' he said.

He spoke about how infrastructure development will impact the growth of the economy.

Speaking at the same summit yesterdat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that his government has transformed the fear of business into 'ease of doing business' over the past decade.

PM Modi said that India is witnessing a significant transformation related to future preparedness. (ANI)