India wants a US trade deal with an ‘urgency’ not seen before

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India’s trade teams are “really charged up” and want to swiftly seal a bilateral deal with the US, a minister from Narendra Modi’s government said, as the South Asian nation scrambles to shield itself from Washington’s on-again, off-again tariff strategy.

“This time around we are certainly geared up with a very high degree of urgency,” Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said Friday, April 11, at an event in New Delhi. In the past, India has often been accused of dragging its feet when it comes to trade negotiations, but this time New Delhi is the one pushing “the other party,” he added.

“So far, the US has been quick to respond to what has been tabled,” Jaishankar said at the Global Technology Summit hosted by Carnegie India.

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During Modi’s visit to the White House in February, India and the US had said that they plan to sign a trade deal by the fall of this year. Despite that, US President Donald Trump hit India with 26% reciprocal tariffs on April 2, before announcing a 90-day reprieve for most nations.

While the additional levies are a growth-dampener for Asia’s third-largest economy, it also sees these disruptions as an opportunity to play a bigger role in global supply chains, as the levies on India are way less than what some of its regional rivals face.

“We want to seize that window so our trade teams are really charged up,” Jaishankar said, adding that India has had more rounds of discussions with the US in the past six weeks, than with European nations in the last two years.

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Other Pacts

India is also in the midst of negotiating free trade deals with the European Union and the UK. At another event in New Delhi, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani, said that his country has been “pushing hard in Brussels” to expedite the India-EU trade pact.

The two sides have been discussing a deal since 2007, but have approached talks with much more urgency since Trump’s return to the White House. In February, EU President Ursula von der Leyen said that she aims to seal the deal by this year, adding that “you can count on my full commitment.”

On Friday, at the event with Tajani, India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal told reporters “all trade talks are progressing well.” When asked if India would be able to conclude talks on trade deal with the US within 90 days, Goyal said “we don’t negotiate with gun to head.”

“It’s good to have time frames to speed up talks, but till we can ensure national interest and public interest, it’s not good to rush.”

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