New Delhi, March 7 -- As Indian and US negotiators huddle in Washington to iron out issues in a potential trade deal, one of the key areas that has emerged is petrochemical trade, three people aware of the matter said on the condition of anonymity.

The American side has asked for tariff concessions on petrochemical exports to India, even as their Indian counterparts are pushing more value addition to be done in India-less imports from the US of finished goods and more of raw materials to be processed in India.

Currently, India imports both raw materials-mostly crude oil-and finished goods of the petrochemical value chain from the US, including polypropylene (PP), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR), among oth...