Trade negotiations between India and the US are “still ongoing” even as both sides have “reached a plateau” beyond which further give-and-take “might be very, very difficult,” Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday, days after US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said an agreement was “not imminent.”

Speaking at the Munich Leaders Meeting, Sitharaman said, "The agreement negotiations are still ongoing." (PTI)

Speaking on India’s approach to the next generation of trade agreements at the Munich Leaders Meeting (MLM), organised by the Munich Security Conference in New Delhi, Sitharaman cited the India-EU free trade agreement concluded on January 2026 as an example of a mutually beneficial deal in which both sides respected each other’s sensitivities.

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“The agreement’s negotiations are still ongoing, although we’d like to believe that both the sides have reached a plateau, beyond which giving or taking might be very, very difficult,” she said.

“But maybe, if there are rooms to operate from, both sides would do it,” she added, indicating that New Delhi and Washington were looking for common ground. India, however, maintains that there is no single template for trade negotiations as economic realities vary across countries and regions.

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Greer also said US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have another phone call “very soon” to assess progress on the trade deal.

According to trade experts, uncertainties created by Washington’s frequent trade measures and the use of tariffs as a negotiating tool are major hurdles to signing an interim bilateral trade agreement (BTA). The two countries had issued a joint statement on February 7 outlining a framework for an interim BTA.

Sitharaman also said the balance of bilateral trade between India and the US was in India’s favour and that Washington’s concerns over its trade deficit could be addressed through negotiations rather than the “weaponization” of tariffs.

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“Tariff was an instrument of negotiation. And tariff had a certain framework within which you will apply it,” Sitharaman said. In a reference to India’s trade deficit with China, she said: “So, I can probably take the same position, can I not?... But no, you can’t. You will have to talk it out. You will have to negotiate.”

Bilateral merchandise trade between India and China stood at $151.1 billion in 2025-26, with India recording a trade deficit of $112.6 billion.

In 2025, total China-US bilateral trade was $414.7 billion, with the US recording a trade deficit of about $202.7 billion. India, however, reported a trade surplus of $34.4 billion with the US in 2025-26, narrowing from a surplus of $40.89 billion in 2024-25.