New Delhi, May 30 -- The American trade court's verdict that President Donald Trump overstepped his authority while imposing 'Liberation Day' import duties may strengthen India's bargaining power while negotiating a bilateral trade deal with the US, experts said adding that it could also ease pressure on New Delhi to sign an interim deal before July 9 or face a 26% reciprocal tariff. "The US court judgment has whipped off any moral justification of Trump's already WTO-incompatible 'Liberation Day' tariffs. India should keep this illegality in mind while negotiating the trade agreement," said Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) founder and former Indian Trade Service officer Ajay Srivastava. The US Court of International Trade on May 28 ruled that President Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs imposed on goods imported from 57 countries, including India, were illegal under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) as trade deficits do not meet the "unusual and extraordinary threat" threshold required to invoke such emergency powers. The ruling scotches a major element of Trump's trade strategy, though Section 232 tariffs on steel and automotive imports would remain unaffected by it, Srivastava said. He said that India should resist any agreement shaped by threats or imposing unlawful measures such as reciprocal tariffs. "India is reportedly preparing to eliminate tariffs on thousands of products including automobiles, and agriculture, open its government procurement market, weaken intellectual property and data laws to benefit US tech and pharma companies, and allow more foreign market access, including approving Starlink's satellite internet - mostly as one-sided concessions. But such a deal lacks balance and fairness," he said. "With the Trump tariffs standing on shaky legal ground, India must pause and reassess its negotiation strategy before committing to an FTA that could disproportionately favour US interests," he added. Exporters expect the court verdict to increase India's bargaining power. "This indeed is good news for India as the (end of the) 90 days suspension period for reciprocal tariffs is fast approaching, and with India and US keen on stitching an early trade deal. President Trump's idea behind introducing the reciprocal tariff apparently was to bring all trading partner countries to the negotiation table and enter into tariff arrangement that could benefit US manufacturing sector," said Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) secretary general Mithileshwar Thakur. Now, he added, India could negotiate "from a position of strength". "India has always been a strong votary of rules- based free, fair and non- discriminatory multilateral world trade order and has consistently opposed any arbitrary and unilateral trade restriction by WTO member countries." India could be more assertive about sensitive sectors such as agriculture and auto industry and should resist granting undue concessions to US just to avoid reciprocal tariffs, Thakur said. Government officials are, however, tight lipped on the court's verdict and its implications on trade talks. India-US trade talks will continue as per schedule because the two countries agreed to negotiate a mutually beneficial bilateral trade agreement (BTA) on February 13, much before Washington's April 2 reciprocal tariff announcements, they said requesting anonymity. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Trump on February 13 announced their plan to negotiate the first tranche of a mutually beneficial, multi-sector bilateral trade agreement (BTA) by fall [September-October] of 2025, they said. "At that time, there was absolutely no pressure of reciprocal tariffs as Leaders' statement of negotiating BTA came almost two months before the US announced Liberation Day tariffs," one of them said. A term of the US officials is expected to arrive in New Delhi next week to take the trade talks further, he said adding that the two partners want to finish an early harvest deal by June 2025. While speaking at CII's Annual Business Summit, 2025 in the Capital on Thursday, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said negotiations on the India-US bilateral trade agreement (BTA) are "well on track" along with talks for free trade agreements such as the one with the EU. "We are well on track in our bilateral trade agreement with the US and making fast progress with EU," he said. Earlier, speaking at a different session of the same event, the commerce ministry's special secretary and India's chief negotiator for the US trade deal, Rajesh Agrawal said that the bilateral talks are progressing well as both countries are "approaching this whole trade agreement with the perspective that India and the US are complementary economies" and "there are only few areas where we actually compete". "You may recall, we entered into this bilateral trade agreement discussions much before the reciprocal tariffs [were announced] . we see there is a natural synergy between India and the US, which needs to be leveraged," he said. The overall discussion around tariffs and trade deficit are something that is the narrative of the US administration and the US government, but that should not come in way of our trade partnership that the two are trying to stitch together, he said. "We should be able to work out a trade partnership where there are natural comparative advantages to our businesses on both sides," he said. "With that perspective, we are progressing well, and hopefully in this tough times also, we'll be able to navigate and come out with good outcomes sooner than later."...