External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday said negotiations on the India-US trade deal were heading towards a possible conclusion, with officials from both countries working to resolve outstanding issues.
Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in New Delhi, Jaishankar said India was “pretty far advanced” in the negotiation process, while noting that the terms offered to competing economies remained a factor in the discussions.
He said the two sides were ironing out differences but declined to disclose details of the discussions.
“My sense is that this is an issue which is heading towards a landing point,” he said, referring to the ongoing negotiations.
The remarks come as New Delhi and Washington seek to finalise a trade agreement amid differences over tariffs and market access.
‘We are pretty far advanced’ in negotiations
Jaishankar said the outcome would depend not only on the terms India and the US negotiate with each other, but also on how those terms compare with agreements Washington reaches with competing economies.
“That part of it is not entirely clear because not everybody has worked out the deal,” he said, adding that the US Trade Representative and India's Commerce and Industry Ministry were working to iron out the remaining issues.
Jaishankar declined to share details of the negotiations publicly, saying there were still “a few things” to resolve.
‘The whole tariff debate is about reindustrialisation’
Explaining the broader context of the negotiations, Jaishankar said the US had adopted a different approach to tariffs as it sought to rebuild its industrial base and reset the terms of access to its market.
“The US is today determined to reindustrialise and to reset the terms of access to its economy,” he said, linking the two objectives to Washington's tariff policy.
He added that major economies were negotiating with the US on these terms and India was not alone in the process.
Jaishankar also said the underlying areas of convergence between India and the US had not fundamentally changed, describing their relationship as a strategic partnership rather than a formal alliance.