Nirmala Sitharaman: 'Economic buoyancy can't be overstated; else, we wouldn't have been where we are'

How difficult is it for a sovereign country like India to put up with President Donald Trump's unilateral statement that the US will "open up" our economy, when the trade talks are just underway? In fact, I would like to see it also from the Indian side. The US is one of our leading trade partners, topmost, if anything. At the junction we are in, and given our growth goals and ambition to reach Viksit Bharat by 2047, the sooner we have such agreements with strong economies, the better they will serve us. So, I'd rather put my own statement on (Trump's): "Yes, I'd love to have an agreement, a big, good, beautiful one; why not?

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But, what are the red lines India has drawn?

The negotiating team ensured that industry's concerns were all taken on board before they sat at the table for talks. Agriculture and dairy have been among the very big red lines, where a high degree of caution has been exercised. There are some areas where one can always look at, seek greater market access for us, and also open up. Even in agriculture, there're areas with little or no domestic vulnerabilities... Possibly. But that (opening them up) is only with the consent of the department agriculture. There's no way we could do anything that which would weaken our agriculture, our farmers' positions. You had reiterated recently that, "tariff king" tag doesn't befit us. Our applied tariffs are mostly low...

We have only eight duties, inclusive of zero tariff. There have been drastic cuts of tariffs in the July (main) and February (interim) budgets. The effective tariff rates are (lower than the limits) announced in the gazette with Parliament approval, which is itself far below the WTO boundary. So, for India to be called a tariff king and so on is absolutely unjustified. Yet, there's scope for further lowering of tariffs, without causing any harm to domestic industry...