Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said India hopes to ‘conclude positively’ the first tranche of the bilateral trade agreement (BTA) with the US by fall this year, indicating progress on talks to bring down tariffs.
Sitharaman, who commenced her six-day US trip from San Francisco, is scheduled to meet US treasury secretary Scott Bessent, besides attending the World Bank-IMF and G20 meetings.
Since coming to power in January, President Donald Trump has aggressively used tariffs to balance US trade with the world by seeking greater access to American goods in world markets. He has already announced reciprocal tariffs on all economies, including India, but later paused them for three months.
“We are one of the countries which actively engaged with the new administration in the United States of America to see how best we can get a bilateral trade agreement done,” she said, addressing the Indian diaspora in San Francisco.
While the reciprocal tariffs have led to countries approaching the US for a trade agreement, India has a head start among scores of countries seeking a trade deal with America. The government is taking every measure to ensure that trade with the US, the biggest trade partner, is not disrupted. In 2024-25, India’s merchandise exports to the US grew 11.6% on year to $86.51 billion, while imports grew 7.4% to $45.3 billion.
In recent months, prime minister Narendra Modi and trade minister Piyush Goyal have had high-profile visits to the US. On Monday, US vice president JD Vance arrived in India and is scheduled to hold talks with Modi.
“…engaging with the US is not just for reciprocal tariff related matters, but in the interest of our largest trading partner, with which we need to have an agreement…we are working in order that by fall this year, we should at least have the first phase of the agreement signed,” she said.
The minister also mentioned about the recent visit of the US Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch to check on see the progress or to engage with the negotiating team dealing with the tariff related negotiation for BTA.
During the visit, the ToR was finalised in four days of talks in late March, which would be further developed. The Indian negotiating team led by additional commerce secretary Rajesh Agarwal will leave for Washington on a three-day visit on April 23.
Through the BTA both sides are aiming to take bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030 from around $200 billion now. Speaking about the fiscal health of the country, the minister said the government would meet the revised target of 4.8% of GDP for FY25 and below 4.4% for FY26.