Following Donald Trump’s decision to pause the reciprocal tariffs Washington had placed on New Delhi for ninety days, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal declared that India would “never negotiate at gunpoint” and would not rush into any agreement over matters that are in the best interests of its citizens. The action was interpreted as a tight window for the United States and India to quickly finalise a bilateral trade deal being discussed.
“Favourable time constraints motivate us for quicker talks, but till the time we are not able to secure the interest of our country and our people, we do not hurry (into any deal),” Mr Goyal said, adding that both the US and India remain sensitive to each other’s concerns and requirements.
Meanwhile, at another forum – the Carnegie Global Technology Summit – External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar too, spoke about India’s trade talks with several nations and blocs, including with the United States.
“All our trade talks are progressing well, in the spirit of India First, and to ensure our pathway to Viksit Bharat by 2047 in the Amrit Kaal,” he said without getting into the specifics.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said that India is prepared for a high degree of urgency in finalising a trade agreement with the US. He admitted that Washington has “fundamentally changed its approach to engaging with the world and it has consequences across every domain.”
We want to see stuff. So, our trade deals are really challenging,” the minister said. “When I look at the trade deals, I mean it’s not my direct credit, but we have a lot to do with each other. I mean, these are people very much on top of their game, very ambitious about what they want to achieve.”
He went on to say that just as the US has its own perspective on India, India also sees the US through its own lens — a viewpoint that wasn’t acknowledged the last time.
“We talked for four years during the first Trump administration. They have their view of us, and frankly, we have our view of them. The bottom line is that they didn’t get that.”
On the trade talks with the European Union, he said, “So, if you look at the EU, often people say we’ve been negotiating for 30 years, which is not entirely true because we had big blocks of time and nobody was even talking to each other. But they have tended to be a very protracted processes.”
