Most India-US trade deal issues, including tariff lines, sorted as talks reach the last stretch
India and the United States have sorted out the bulk of the issues, including tariff lines, holding up their proposed trade deal, and the agreement could be sealed soon as talks continue to resolve the last stretch of concerns, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said on Saturday. He was speaking at an interactive session of a leadership summit in New Delhi.
He said the negotiations are approaching the finishing line, adding that many of the remaining issues are not so much at India's end, because more of the changes have occurred on the American side. It is certainly their hope and anticipation that they are at the last stretch, he said, adding that this is no secret. The hope is to close it out soon, he said, noting that in the last period of any negotiation everyone is impatient.
His remarks come about a month before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's likely visit to the US for the G20 Summit in Miami on December 14 and 15, on the sidelines of which he and President Donald Trump may meet to review the broader trajectory of bilateral ties and progress on the trade pact. There is speculation that the two countries may announce the deal following those talks. Modi is also expected to meet Trump on the sidelines of the ASEAN and East Asia summits in Manila, the Philippines, on November 16 and 17, while Trump is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin at next week's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in the Chinese technology hub of Shenzhen.
India and the US have been engaged in talks since early 2025 on the proposed pact, which aims to address tariff friction, eliminate non-tariff barriers and boost bilateral market access. India is seeking better tariffs than its competitors for its goods in the US market. Last month, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in Mumbai that the two sides are very close to firming up the trade deal.
Jaishankar said the key for India is a trade deal that is beneficial and balanced and would give it a comparative advantage over groups of comparable economies - that is the expectation of where the country would be when the deal is done. He described the US as in a way India's biggest market and the world's largest economy, and said a deal with such an economy would obviously benefit India. President Trump, he noted, is looking to conclude a whole set of bilateral deals to improve markets for the US, and the challenge is to find a landing point.
Learning from earlier trade agreements
The minister called for the proposed pact to be viewed from a larger perspective of both countries. Many of India's early trade deals were done with Asian economies that were actually competitive economies, and the gains people expected from those free trade agreements (FTAs) did not exactly materialise, he said. The FTAs concluded in the last few years, by contrast, have been much more thought through and much more strategically and economically assessed.
He said the deal was not something that could have been done quickly or magically with bold thinking and rapid movement, because these are very serious issues where people's jobs and people's lives are at stake. Negotiators went tariff line by tariff line, which takes time, and not everybody had the patience or the understanding to bear with it. But having put in that painstaking effort, the two sides have now reached almost the finishing line, he said.
In the same session, Jaishankar said India's border with China has become more alive in a way and has required a much greater commitment of troops on a sustained basis, pointing to the steady upgrade in border infrastructure - new tunnels, bridges and airfields announced with growing frequency.
In his first comments on the recent US mid-term elections, he said there is a bipartisan political consensus in the United States on the defence, security and technology relationship with India. He also said the US-China competition is a big part of the current global volatility, while noting that many other factors are also at play in the changing global landscape.
A deal could lift ties strained over the past year
If the trade deal is finalised, it could trigger an upswing in the overall trajectory of bilateral ties. Relations witnessed a major downturn after Washington imposed punitive tariffs on India last year, and after President Trump made assertions about his role in de-escalating the India-Pakistan military clashes of May 2025, which drew a sharp reaction from Indian officials. Washington's new immigration policy and its decision to increase the H1B visa fee also contributed to the slide, and ties came under fresh strain after the US moved to restrict a key green-card processing programme used by major global and Indian information technology firms, including Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro.