“Very active and intense trade discussion going on (with US)”: EAM Jaishankar

External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar has said that India and the US have had a "very open discussion" on trade, leading to plans for a Bilateral Trade Agreement by autumn. As the world counts down to reciprocal tariffs by the United States starting April 2, the EAM underlined that India is currently having a “very active and intense trade discussion” with the Trump administration.

Active Trade Talks With US: EAM

In conversation with Kyung-wha Kang of the Asia Society in Delhi on Wednesday, Dr Jaishankar mentioned that there has been a "very active and intense trade discussion" between India and the US at this point, and recalled Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US in February.

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EAM on Bilateral Trade Deal With US

Delving deeper into the possibility of a trade deal between India and the US, Dr Jaishankar added, "When we went to Washington in February, when the Prime Minister went and the discussions that he had with President Trump, I think overall our assessment was that we saw many changes which suited us or which in some ways formed a convergence on which we could build.”

Illustrating with some examples, Dr Jaishankar spoke about the potential for cooperation in the defence sector. He said India “saw a President who was much more open and much more active in terms of building a security and defence partnership, and much more forthcoming about American technology possibilities."

Notably, India and the US are preparing to negotiate a landmark Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) that could potentially boost trade between the two nations, amid US President Donald Trump’s plans to impose reciprocal tariffs on US trading partners, including India.

EAM on India’s RCEP Decision

Dr Jaishankar also defended India’s decision to stay out of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the free trade agreement that includes 15 economies in Asia, including China. He said that through the RCEP discussions, India continuously sought protections and safeguards due to concerns about a surge in imports essentially driven by non-market and subsidy support.

He added that the RCEP partners did not take India’s concerns seriously, and presented India with a take-it-or-leave-it situation. Dr Jaishankar said, “And we left it. I think today, if you ask people—at that time, perhaps opinions were a bit more divided—today, there’s a much stronger consensus that not joining RCEP was a wise decision for a country like India, because of the nature of RCEP."

(With ANI Inputs )