India and the United States are “very close” to the first tranche of a bilateral trade agreement (BTA) with broad convergence reached on most issues, a senior official said on Friday, adding that the two sides have begun drafting the language of the pact.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, added that the negotiators were about to find some common ground on “pending issues’, without elaborating what these were. “We don’t see any new issue arising now.., We are discussing non-tariff barriers,” the official said, hinting that the key sticking point of tariffs has been resolved.

The official, however, hastened to add that “no deal is finalised a yet, as this is done at a much higher political level.”

He said it was possible that a US team might visit India soon, but did not

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