India-US trade talks 'still ongoing', but both sides have 'reached a plateau': Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman

Trade negotiations between India and the US are "still ongoing" even as both sides have "reached a plateau" beyond which further give-and-take "might be very, very difficult," Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday, days after US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said an agreement was "not imminent."

Speaking on India's approach to the next generation of trade agreements at the Munich Leaders Meeting (MLM), organised by the Munich Security Conference in New Delhi, Sitharaman cited the India-EU free trade agreement concluded on January 2026 as an example of a mutually beneficial deal in which both sides respected each other's sensitivities.

Asked whether this would serve as a template for other negotiations, particularly with the US, Sitharaman said the India-US agreement "is yet to get finalised" and has been "a hard and very rigorously negotiated agreement".

"The agreement's negotiations are still ongoing, although we'd like to believe that both the sides have reached a plateau, beyond which giving or taking might be very, very difficult," she said.

"But maybe, if there are rooms to operate from, both sides would do it," she added, indicating that New Delhi and Washington were looking for common ground. India, however, maintains that there is no single template for trade negotiations as economic realities vary across countries and regions.

Sitharaman's remarks came days after Greer said at a press conference following the G20 Trade Ministers' meeting in Milwaukee that he did not think there was "something imminent" on a trade deal with India. He said the two sides had identified "the universe of items" that were sticking points.

Greer also said US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have another phone call "very soon" to assess progress on the trade deal.

According to trade experts, uncertainties created by Washington's frequent trade measures and the use of tariffs as a negotiating tool are major hurdles to signing an interim bilateral trade agreement (BTA). The two countries had issued a joint statement on February 7 outlining a framework for an interim BTA.

However, the agreement was not signed after the US Supreme Court invalidated the legal basis for the preferential tariff mechanism Washington had offered, the experts said. India is now awaiting a preferential tariff framework that provides competitive access for its exporters vis-a-vis competing countries, they added.

Sitharaman also said the balance of bilateral trade between India and the US was in India's favour and that Washington's concerns over its trade deficit could be addressed through negotiations rather than the "weaponization" of tariffs.

Citing China, with which both the US and India run large trade deficits, she said negotiations were the best way to address trade imbalances rather than using tariffs or other measures.

"Tariff was an instrument of negotiation. And tariff had a certain framework within which you will apply it," Sitharaman said. In a reference to India's trade deficit with China, she said: "So, I can probably take the same position, can I not?... But no, you can't. You will have to talk it out. You will have to negotiate."

Bilateral merchandise trade between India and China stood at $151.1 billion in 2025-26, with India recording a trade deficit of $112.6 billion.

In 2025, total China-US bilateral trade was $414.7 billion, with the US recording a trade deficit of about $202.7 billion. India, however, reported a trade surplus of $34.4 billion with the US in 2025-26, narrowing from a surplus of $40.89 billion in 2024-25.