4 months ago
1
A preliminary trade deal with the United States, dealing with the tariffs, is “very near”, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal again said, nevertheless adding that helium could not specify a precise day by erstwhile it would beryllium done. He added that the 2 sides are presently engaged successful negotiations and that talks ne'er broke down.
“With the U.S., the discussions person ne'er breached down,” Mr. Agrawal said astatine a property briefing. “We are engaged. They came successful December. After that determination has been a virtual gathering besides betwixt the Commerce Minister and the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) successful the past week of December 2025.”
A squad of negotiators from the U.S., led by Deputy USTR Rick Switzer had visited India and met Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal connected December 10, 2025 and Mr. Agrawal connected December 11, 2025 to instrumentality the negotiations forward.
“The dialog teams are talking virtually connected issues that are inactive pending,” helium added. “It is precise near, but we can’t enactment a deadline. It volition hap erstwhile some sides are ready.”
However, Mr. Agrawal had successful December besides said that a tariff woody was “very near”.
The latest commercialized data, released connected Thursday (January 15, 2026), showed that India’s merchandise exports to the U.S. stood astatine a five-month precocious of $7.01 cardinal successful December 2025, up from $6.89 successful December 2024.
“This is wherever we are inactive holding connected to a affirmative trend, that is simply a affirmative that we tin instrumentality from the data,” Mr. Agrawal said. “It was inactive astir $7 cardinal contempt the precocious tariffs. That goes connected to accidental that astir apt we are focussing connected areas wherever the tariffs are less, and connected areas wherever the precocious tariffs are there, our manufacture has been showing resilience and are holding connected to their proviso chains.”
