India hopes to conclude trade deal with US soon

Amid the heated nationwide debate on the reciprocal tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump on India and other nations, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar said on Wednesday that India is currently negotiating a Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) with America, which could be concluded by the fall of this year.

- STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 9 APRIL

Asked how India is going to deal with the reciprocal tariffs at a media summit here, he said, "I don't think it is possible to speak about the impact because we don't know."

He said India's strategy has been to engage with the US in concluding the BTA. "Our strategy is pretty clear; we decided that we will engage the Trump administration earlier on this set of issues, and we were very open with them, constructive with them as they were with us. What we agreed to do was try to negotiate a bilateral trade agreement by the fall of this year," the minister added.

"To the best of my knowledge, and I could be corrected here, I think we are the only country after President Trump has resumed the presidency the second time, which has reached such an understanding (for a BTA) in principle," Mr Jaishankar said.