External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Wednesday said that India is working towards finalizing a bilateral trade agreement (BTA) with the United States by the fall of 2025 — making it the only country to have reached such an understanding with the US under President Donald Trump’s second term.
Jaishankar said the two nations had agreed early on to constructively engage on trade issues and aim for a comprehensive agreement. “What we agreed to do was to try to negotiate a bilateral trade agreement by the fall of this year,” he said, referring to ongoing discussions that followed the Modi-Trump summit in Washington, D.C.
India is currently facing 27% tariffs under the US’s reciprocal tariff regime. Jaishankar noted that the trade deal is intended to address such issues and ensure a strategic path forward. “Our strategy has a goal — to deal with the situation by concluding a BTA,” he said, adding that a trade deal has long been India’s objective.
The two countries have also set a target to expand bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030. According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, expert-level discussions under the BTA framework will begin virtually in the coming weeks, paving the way for in-person negotiations.
