Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday (October 16, 2026) expressed hope that the India-U.S. trade agreement would be concluded at the earliest, in the interest of global trade and bilateral economic ties between the two countries.

“I think recently the Indian Commerce Minister has also spoken that they expect and wish to have the agreement signed soon. Negotiations have been going on. I hope, in the interest of global trade and in the interest of trade between the two partners, India and U.S., the trade agreement gets concluded at the earliest,” she said.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday (October 15, 2026) said the first phase of the India-U.S. trade pact has been finalised and is undergoing legal drafting.

On trade with China, Ms. Sitharaman said the growing trade imbalance and persistent restrictions on market access for Indian products remained major concerns, despite years of engagement with Beijing.

India has consistently sought market access in China for products such as generic medicines, bovine meat, vegetables and other perishable goods, but made little progress despite years of engagement, Sitharaman said in an interaction with the Atlantic Council on the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok, Thailand.

“Non-tariff barriers are the biggest hurdle in the trade between India and China,” she said, adding that China had used phytosanitary measures and other non-tariff restrictions despite the potential for discussions and investigations to resolve such issues.

She said India had not adopted the approach of imposing punitive tariffs on trading partners to correct large trade imbalances, preferring instead to pursue negotiations, even if the process was time-consuming.

On BRICS, Ms. Sitharaman said the grouping should be viewed as a partnership aimed at improving the welfare of its people rather than as a platform to counter any country or bloc.

“I don’t think BRICS’s intention is to counter others. It is more to strengthen the partnership through the BRICS,” she added.

She noted that BRICS represented nearly 40 per cent of the world’s population and said cooperation among its member countries could improve trade, foster mutual understanding and expand economic opportunities.

With new members joining the grouping, 11 to 12 countries were actively engaging with one another, collectively accounting for around 45% of global trade, she said.

On India’s economic growth, Ms. Sitharaman said the country has sustained strong growth despite global disruptions and has been the world’s fastest-growing major economy over the past four to five years, particularly after COVID-19 pandemic.

She attributed India’s performance to inclusive growth, wider access to resources and skill development for young people, fiscal prudence and higher public capital expenditure.

The Finance Minister said public investment in infrastructure had generated a stronger multiplier effect than directly transferring equivalent amounts of money to people, while also creating employment and supporting economic activity.

Public spending on infrastructure helped channel money to people through economic activity without putting the same pressure on the fiscal deficit as some alternative forms of expenditure, she said.

Ms. Sitharaman added that government borrowing was broadly aligned with infrastructure expenditure, arguing that debt-financed asset creation was benefiting the economy.

“Borrowing goes for asset creation, and as a result, the economy has benefited,” she said.

The first tranche of the India-U.S. trade deal has been “finalised”, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday (October 15, 2026). He added that what remained were the “final contours” and the legal vetting, and that the deal would be implemented once there was clarity on India’s competitive advantage over its peers.

Mr. Goyal’s comments come soon after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that negotiations on the deal had “plateaued”, with little room remaining for further give and take. Before that, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer remarked that while the two countries were nearing the end of negotiations, he did not “think there’s something imminent”.

Also Read | India, U.S. ironing out differences on trade deal; nearing ‘landing point’: Jaishankar

“The U.S. bilateral trade agreement first tranche has been finalised,” Mr. Goyal said while speaking at an event in Delhi. “It’s going through the final contours, the legal drafting, and we hope to be able to finalise that soon and operationalise that once we get comparable advantage or competitive advantage over our peer countries.”

He added that his latest comments were consistent with what he has been saying over the last three months.

The larger Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) was supposed to have been concluded by “Fall 2025” (October-November 2025). An interim agreement on trade, announced in February 2026, was supposed to have been implemented by March-April 2026.

Separately, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal also spoke optimistically about the deal with the U.S.

“We are in a very good zone,” Mr. Agrawal told reporters on Thursday (October 15, 2026). “We anticipate closing the deal and signing the deal at the earliest possible time.”

“So, there is a parallel work being done in the U.S. also to get back the tariff structure and based on some of the outcomes under Section 301, we will progress towards signing the deal at a mutually agreed time,” he added.

The U.S. has levied a 10% tariff on imports from India under an investigation it had carried out under Section 301 of its Trade Act regarding the prevention of imports of goods made using forced labour. A separate Section 301 investigation on excess capacity is currently underway, and could lead to further tariffs.

In September, U.S. President Donald Trump also signed into law an Act that could see tariffs of up to 100% being levied on countries like India that import large amounts of Russian oil and gas. The final tariffs on India are expected to be announced soon.

On the matter, Mr. Barthwal said there could be greater clarity once the agreement is signed.

Earlier this month, Ms. Sitharaman had said that the deal with the U.S. is very rigorously negotiated but that “we would like to believe that both sides have reached a plateau beyond which giving or taking might be very difficult”.

A few days earlier, Mr. Greer remarked that while he thinks the two countries are towards the end of negotiations, “I don’t think there’s something imminent”.

“The U.S. and India announced in February that they had reached a framework for an interim trade agreement, but circumstances have changed, and the pact will be finalised accordingly,” Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Saturday (October 10, 2026).

He also said trade pact negotiations are on with number of regions including Israel, Chile, GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) and Russia-led group Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

“USA (trade pact) February me announce hua. Thodi paristhitiyan badli hain, usko abhi madde nazar rakhte hue final hoga. (It was announced in February. Some circumstances have changed; the final decision will be made keeping that in mind),” Mr. Goyal said in New Delhi while addressing members of industry chamber PHDCCI.

India is seeking lower tariffs for its goods than its competitors in the American markets. The Minister did not elaborate about those circumstances, but the changing tariff landscape in the U.S. has led to further negotiations about the first phase of bilateral trade agreement (BTA) between India and the U.S.

Mr. Goyal earlier this month met U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on the sidelines of G20 trade Ministers meeting in Milwaukee. Both discussed trade pact-related issues.

Further, the Minister said that negotiations for a trade pact with Canada are moving at a faster pace and talks for an agreement with South Africa-led SACU group will start soon.

Several countries are keen to negotiate trade agreements with India, he said adding talks with Mexico will be launched next week. Mr. Goyal informed that the trade Ministers of the U.K. and Canada will be visiting India next week. India and the U.K. implemented a trade agreement in July. The U.K. Minister will be here for the India-U.K. Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) meeting.

Piyush Goyal criticises Opposition

The Union Minister slams Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his claims and statements after meeting President Droupadi Murmu.

“It was an objectionable behaviour … He has insulted the President … This is a sense of anarchy,” Mr. Goyal said, adding that the Opposition leaders have misbehaved with security personnel.

A delegation of INDIA bloc leaders met President Murmu on Friday evening (October 9, 2026) and handed her a memorandum on the alleged “vote chori“.

After the meeting, Mr. Gandhi said he was shocked and stunned that the President did not deny the “election theft” charge and “accepted” what the Opposition leaders stated.

India expects the U.S. team to visit the country for the next round of trade talks, though no dates have been finalised yet, an official said on Monday (May 11, 2026).

The Indian side visited Washington, D.C. in April for an in-person round of meetings with their U.S. counterparts to finalise the details of the interim agreement and take forward the negotiations under the Broader Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA).

“Now we expect the U.S. team to visit India next for trade talks. No dates have been decided,” the official said.

After the April meet, both sides have agreed to stay engaged to sustain the momentum ahead for the trade talks.

Last month, officials of the two sides discussed several areas, such as market access, non-tariff measures, technical barriers to trade, customs and trade facilitation, investment promotion, economic security alignment and digital trade.

India and the U.S. issued a joint statement on February 7 finalising a framework for an interim trade agreement regarding reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade.

The framework reaffirmed the countries’ commitment to the broader India-U.S. Bilateral Trade Agreement negotiations.

India’s outbound shipments to the U.S. grew marginally by 0.92% to $87.3 billion during the last fiscal year, while imports increased 15.95% to $52.9 billion. The trade surplus declined to $34.4 billion in 2025-26 from $40.89 billion in 2024-25.

Washington DC

The U.S. and India are not “far off” from finalizing an interim trade deal, but need to bridge some negotiating gaps, such as over discussions on pulses and the staging of tariff reductions, according to a U.S. official.

“We’re not that far off from finalizing the interim trade deal, but some gaps remain,” the official told The Hindu in recent days.

Officials in Washington are working out the nitty-gritty of trade agreements following the U..S Supreme Court’s February 20 ruling that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which was the basis for President Donald Trump’s ‘reciprocal tariffs’, was unlawfully applied. The administration is now working towards re-establishing the reciprocal tariffs using other legislative tools, including ‘Special’ 301 trade investigations conducted by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s (USTR).

One of the gaps in India-U.S. discussions, as per the U.S. official, is around pulses, with India seeking to safeguard the market for this agricultural commodity and the U.S. wanting greater access to it. Politically, agriculture is a deeply sensitive issue for both countries, with the administration in DC and government in New Delhi not singing from the same song sheet— or, more literally, ‘fact sheet’.

Last month, the White House put out a ‘fact sheet’– including the term “certain pulses” on a list of items that, it claimed, India would cut tariffs on. This and other discrepancies with the joint statement issued by Washington and New Delhi had created a political furore in India. The White House quietly reissued the ‘fact sheet’ – a political statement, rather than a statement of fact– this time omitting the reference to pulses and correcting certain other discrepancies.

However, the U.S. side still appears to be pushing for market access on pulses. Additionally, The Hindu has learned that Washington is seeking reduced staging (i.e., the speeding up of a phased reduction in tariffs) and this is currently one of the gaps in negotiating positions and is under discussion.

Conversations The Hindu has had in recent days suggest that right now, however, trade officials in Washington are not focused on closing the gaps in trade deals but are busy conducting Special 301 investigations launched in March against tens of countries, including India, ostensibly for excess capacity in manufacturing and forced labour.  

​Farmers’ pulse: On India and its demand for pulses

While the U.S. did sign a trade deal since the latest set of 301s was launched, this was with Ecuador, (on March 13), a country with an economy at least 30 times smaller than India and whose bilateral trade with the U.S. is a fraction of U..S-India bilateral trade.

These probes— which are conducted annually on different countries— will enable the imposition of tariffs on top of the universal tariff rate of 10% , imposed on February 24 using Section 122 of the U.S.’s Trade Act, following the Supreme Court ruling. Section 122 tariffs, applied temporarily when there is a balance of payments issue, can be applied for no more than 150 days and cannot exceed 15% as per law.

Mr. Trump had said in February that he would increase the universal 10% rate to 15%. However, this has not happened and officials in DC appeared unsure whether it would happen at all. A question to the White House on the timing of any such hike went unanswered. The USTR also did not provide information on possible rate hike, when approached by The Hindu.

Hiking this universal tariff to 15% would also complicate Washington’s agreements with countries that had reciprocal tariffs of less than 15%. Additionally, the White House has been focused on Iran in terms of foreign policy and the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, domestically.

Meanwhile, countries are busy with another part of the trade agenda: the World Trade Organization’s 14^th ministerial conference in Cameroon March 26-29. Among the contentious topics is trade in e-commerce, where Indian and American positions are not aligned. India has for long wanted an end to the moratorium on tariffs on various forms of e-commerce (software downloads, digital music, etc.) while the U.S. would like to make this permanent.

A team of negotiators from the U.S. will visit India on December 10-12 to take forward talks on the first tranche, dealing with tariffs, of a Bilateral Trade Agreement between the two countries. 

According to sources in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI), the U.S. delegation is expected to be led by Deputy US Trade Representative Rick Switzer, while the Indian side will be represented by Darpan Jain, joint secretary in MoCI.

The talks are not expected to constitute an official round of negotiations, the last of which took place in the U.S. in October. However, the two sides are looking forward to making “strong progress” towards addressing the issue of tariffs. 

The U.S. currently has imposed a total of 50% tariffs on imports from India, with 25% of these constituting reciprocal tariffs, and another 25% being imposed as a penalty for India’s imports of Russian oil. 

Last month, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal, who was India’s chief negotiator on the U.S. trade deal until he took over as Commerce Secretary in October, said that he was hopeful that the first tranche of the BTA, dealing with tariffs, would be concluded soon.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has also voiced similar sentiments about the deal. 

It has also been reliably learnt from officials closely tracking the deal negotiations that India has presented the U.S. with a revised version of what it considers its “final concessions” on the wider issues of market access and sectoral benefits.

“The officials and negotiators have done what they can on that front,” a second official said. “Now it really is up to the leaders, and that too, one more than the other.” 

There are also indications that the U.S. delegation to India might be accompanied by a “more senior” American government official. 

A team of senior officials from India will visit the U.S. this week for trade talks and negotiations on the proposed Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) are progressing well, a top official said on Monday (October 13, 2025). In February 2025, leaders of the two countries directed officials to negotiate a proposed BTA.

It was planned to conclude the first tranche of the pact by the fall (October-November) of 2025. So far, five rounds of negotiations have been completed.

“The Indian team will visit this week,” the official added.

Last month, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal led an official delegation to New York for trade talks. After that meeting, India and the U.S. decided to continue negotiations for an early conclusion of a mutually beneficial Bilateral Trade Agreement.

Both sides held constructive meetings on various aspects of the trade deal. During the visit, the Minister held meetings with United States Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer and U.S. Ambassador-designate to India Sergio Gor.

The negotiations are important as the U.S. imposed a 25% reciprocal tariff and an additional 25% penalty on Indian goods entering the American market for purchasing Russian crude oil.

At present, a total of 50% additional import duty is imposed on Indian goods. The pact aims to more than double the bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030, from the current $191 billion.

The U.S. remained India’s largest trading partner for the fourth consecutive year in 2024-25, with bilateral trade valued at $131.84 billion ($86.5 billion exports). The U.S. accounts for about 18% of India’s total goods exports, 6.22% in imports, and 10.73% in the country’s total merchandise trade.