India-U.S. ‘very close’ to finalising initial framework deal on reciprocal tariffs: Commerce Secretary

India and the U.S. are “very close” to finalising an initial trade agreement on reciprocal tariffs, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said, although he declined from specifying a deadline for it. 

On the negotiations with the European Union, Mr. Agrawal said both sides are at the final stage where all that is left are the topics where the two sides have differences, which are gradually being resolved. 

“On the India-U.S. trade deal, we have done six formal rounds of negotiations where we have discussed both the full-fledged Bilateral Trade Agreement for which we signed the Terms of Reference in March and also an interim framework deal that can address the reciprocal tariffs,” Mr. Agrawal said at a press conference.   

“We are very close on at least the framework deal which we feel can be done in a short period of time, but I would not like to put a time period to it,” he added.

In the case of the negotiations with the European Union on a Free Trade Agreement, the Commerce Secretary said that the two sides are consistently narrowing down their differences. 

“What happens when you reach the closure of a deal, there are a set of differences on the table where we are not able to agree,” Mr. Agrawal said. “Every meeting helps us reduce those differences. Every day our teams are engaged on some issue or the other.” 

“I will not say there will be formal rounds from now, but there will continue to be physical and virtual meetings to take this forward towards conclusion,” he explained.  

On the negotiations with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), which includes Russia, Mr. Agrawal said that talks are still in an early stage but that the next round of negotiations are proposed to be in February 2026.

“With New Zealand, we did the fourth round in November 2025, which was a formal round,” he said. “After that some physical meetings have taken place as well as virtual. We are in a good zone and we expect that it [the FTA] will be closed and finalised soon.” 

“On the India-Chile FTA, the fourth round happened in early December and we are progressing well there,” Mr. Agrawal said. “With Peru also, there is progress but it is not up to the Chile mark.”