India, the United States has a very positive and intense discussion on trade: Jaishankar

Foreign Affairs Secretary S. Jaishankar said Wednesday that India and the United States are having “very active” and “heavy discussions” about trade as the world is anxious about the reciprocal tariffs of U.S. President Donald Trump, which will begin on April 2.

However, in an interactive meeting chaired by the Asian Association, the leading think tank, Mr. Jashankar refused to prejudice the direct outcome of the trade negotiations, but said there was a strong “business case” between the two countries.

After a speech last month between Washington, D.C. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mr. Trump, both sides announced the negotiations on the first batch of BTAs by the fall of 2025.

“A very active and intense trade discussion is underway,” Mr Jaishankar said at a meeting chaired by Kyung-Wha Kang, Chairman and CEO of the Asian Association and former South Korean Foreign Minister.

Brendan Lynch, Assistant Trade Representative for South and Central Asia in the United States, is currently visiting India for five days starting Tuesday (March 25, 2025).

It is not yet known if there is any discussion about extending some kind of exemption from India when it comes into effect earlier next week.

Mr Jaishankar said that on trade, we had a very open discussion, which is the result of PM Modi and US President Trump’s decision to reach a bilateral trade agreement this fall.

He added: “I have confidence that they (negotiators) will negotiate the best deal that suits us. Despite the concerns I’m not preventing the outcome. I’ll wait and see how we can relate to the U.S. ability to understand us.”

“But I don’t think the issue itself should be an incomprehensible barrier because there are strong business cases with the BTA in the United States,” the Foreign Minister said in response to India’s question on opening up long-term protected agricultural markets, “but I don’t think the issue itself should be a difficult obstacle because there are strong business cases with the BTA in the United States,” he said.

Mr Jaishankar also spoke about the ongoing discussions India is in for a separate free trade agreement with the EU and the UK.

He said the agreements were “very serious” and they were very advanced, “We wanted to wait and see if you actually have a very large set of agreements.”

Mr Jaishankar said that in terms of strategic ties to the United States, New Delhi certainly hopes to establish “more substantial” and “higher quality” defense relations under the Trump administration.

“We’re seeing a president being more open and more active in building security and defense partnerships,” he said, suggesting that the Trump administration is closer to sharing U.S. technology with India.

Mr Jaishankar said New Delhi is also considering improving energy ties with the United States and ensuring that there is a “stable, reasonable, predictable” energy environment, which is crucial for India’s long-term growth and development.

“Now, we’re seeing a president who is clearly interested in ensuring more energy supply and more diversified energy flows, and countries like India can have more options than we currently have,” he said.

The Foreign Minister recalled that India began importing liquefied natural gas from the United States decades ago.

“But the business has been at a certain level for various reasons. We are interested in increasing it because the United States is a very stable supplier,” he said.

“So, from an energy perspective, we found a very active government. I would also say we have a good discussion about the technology community,” he said.

Regarding Mr. Trump’s policy, Mr. Jashankar said: “Overall, our assessment is that we see a lot of changes that suit us or somehow form a convergence that we can build,” he added.

The U.S. president’s tariff quarrel has sparked concerns about a global trade war, and many countries have announced counter-evaluation.

Under his “America First” policy, Mr. Trump announced mutual tariffs on his partners and other countries earlier this month

India has significantly reduced tariffs in the average applied tariffs in major developed countries such as Australia, the United Arab Emirates, Switzerland and Norway under the recently concluded bilateral trade agreements.

Similar negotiations are currently in progress with other partners such as the EU and the UK.

A few weeks ago, Indian government sources said that in this case, ongoing discussions with the United States should take place under such circumstances.

In the union budget for 2025-26, India announced its decision to lower tariffs on the bourbon, wine and electronic vehicle (EV) segment.

The decisions are seen as an attempt to signal the Trump administration that New Delhi is willing to lower tariffs in specific sectors.

Washington also urged New Delhi to buy more U.S. oil, gas and military platforms to reduce India’s favored trade deficit of about $45 billion.

The United States is India’s largest trading partner, with overall bilateral trade in goods and services in the 2023 calendar year of $190 billion.

In the fiscal year 2023-24, the United States was the third largest source of foreign direct investment (FDI), with inflows of US$4.99 billion, almost a percentage of total foreign direct investment stocks.