India is likely the only country to reach an understanding with the United States to sign a bilateral trade agreement (BTA) by fall 2025, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Wednesday.
He made the remarks at the ‘News18 Rising Bharat Summit’ as new US reciprocal tariffs, including a 27% tariff on Indian goods, came into effect.
Jaishankar said India had engaged the Trump administration early and constructively on trade.
“We agreed to try to negotiate a bilateral trade agreement by the fall of this year,” he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump had discussed the deal during talks in Washington in February.
Both sides agreed to begin work on the first tranche of the BTA by fall 2025.
Jaishankar noted that India is the only country under Trump’s second presidency to reach such a trade understanding.
“Our strategy has a goal — to deal with this situation through a bilateral trade agreement,” he said. “This has long been our objective.”
India and the US aim to boost bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030.
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry confirmed that expert-level talks under the BTA will begin virtually in the coming weeks.
These talks will lead to the first in-person negotiating round.
The India-US bilateral trade agreement marks a strategic shift in India’s trade policy amid global tariff pressures.
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