New Delhi, Feb 16 (PTI) A team of Indian officials will visit the US next week to finalise the legal text for an interim trade agreement, which is likely to be signed in March, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said on Monday.

The visit is likely to start on February 23.

Earlier this month, India and the US released a joint statement to announce that a framework for an interim trade agreement has been finalised.

"The joint statement lays down the contours of the deal. Now, the contours of the deal have to be translated into a legal agreement, which will be signed between the two sides," he told reporters here.

Both sides are engaged in finalising that legal agreement, and virtual talks are going on for that.

"Next week, (India's) chief negotiator Darpan Jain will be leading a delegation to the US to finalise the legal (pact) to work towards the legal agreement. That work will carry on next week in Washington and, if need be, thereafter in July and March," Agrawal said.

Jain is the joint secretary in the Commerce Ministry.

The secretary said that there is an effort to close and sign the deal in March, "but I have not put a deadline on it".

"Because legal agreement finalisation also has certain intricacies, which both sides will have to resolve," he said.

Under the interim trade pact, both sides would extend duty concessions to each other on a number of goods traded between them.

The US has announced that it will reduce the reciprocal tariffs on Indian goods from 25 per cent to 18 per cent. It has already eliminated the 25 per cent punitive tariffs on India for buying Russian crude oil.

Agrawal said that the US is working on reducing the reciprocal tariffs from 25 per cent to 18 per cent.

"I am told they are processing it. It should be done fast," he said, adding that "our expectation is that it should be done this week. But, in case it is not done, the team is there next week, and we can pursue and see why it is taking time".

Normally, the agreement is that 18 per cent will be done in the interim pact, and the remaining tariff lines, wherever reciprocal tariffs are expected to go down to zero, that will only be done after the legal agreement is signed, he said.

"And from our side also, any reduction in tariff, any market access, preferential market access will be extended only after the legal agreement is signed," the secretary said.

On cotton, he said India imports around 200-250 million dollars of US cotton on average.

"And the variety being imported, I presume, is the same variety which we get the preferential market access," he added. PTI RR RR BAL BAL

Interim trade agreement: reciprocal tariff reductions and mutual duty concessions to be finalised through legal text. An Indian negotiating team will visit the US to translate a previously announced framework into a signed interim trade agreement legal text. Ongoing virtual talks will be advanced to resolve drafting intricacies; tariff and preferential market access measures agreed in the framework will take effect only after the legal agreement is finalised and signed. The discussions cover reciprocal duty concessions, including a US processing of a reciprocal tariff reduction and the sequencing of implementation tied to signature of the legal pact.