India-US trade deal talks may have reached a ‘plateau’, further concessions difficult: Nirmala Sitharaman

New Delhi: India and the United States may have reached a plateau in their ongoing trade pact talks, and further concessions from either side might be difficult, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday.

"It has been a hard and very rigorously negotiated agreement. We would like to believe that both sides have reached a plateau, beyond which giving or taking might be very difficult," she said at the Munich Leaders meeting.

Also Read: Sitharaman sees a ‘plateau’, but India-US trade deal may not be at a dead end yet: GTRI


The finance minister, however, said there could still be some progress if both sides found room for further negotiations.

Her comments come days after the US trade representative Jamieson Greer said while the negotiations were in the final phase, a deal was not imminent.

The FM said the US was seeking to reduce its trade imbalance with India. "And their desire would be to see as much as possible, get some kind of, from their point of view, making up for all that they've lost over these years," she said.

"If that principle of trade imbalance, which has to be reduced for them to consider anything more, I would think that is the way in which the US would look at China, or India would look at China," she said.

Trade Deficit with China

Sitharaman noted that the trade imbalance between India and China has widened sharply since 2014.

In 2025-26, India's goods trade surplus with the US was about $34.4 billion, while its goods trade deficit with China stood at $112-113 billion.

The finance minister also said that tariffs were increasingly being weaponised as the US sought to address its trade imbalance through means other than traditional negotiations.

"Tariff was an instrument of negotiation, and tariff had a certain framework within which you would apply it," she said. "So when you're talking of trade and trade imbalance being the sole criteria to reduce the imbalance, to what extent beyond negotiation can you go?"

Despite ongoing negotiations to finalise an interim trade agreement announced in February, US President Donald Trump signed legislation last month enabling him to impose tariffs of up to 100% on countries purchasing significant amounts of Russian oil, including India.

Last Friday, the US trade representative said that negotiations on the India-US trade deal were nearing the end. "At the same time, I don't think there's something imminent," Greer said.

Also Read: Nirmala Sitharaman calls for open, rules-based global economic ties amid geopolitical tensions

Sitharaman on Monday referred to the India-European Union Free Trade Agreement - which is set to be signed in December following the conclusion of talks in January - as an example of how India is successfully negotiating and finalising trade deals.

She said calling it the "mother of all deals" is absolutely appropriate, for it is going to be an agreement between two billion people and will cover a quarter of world trade and a quarter of global gross domestic product.

"Ultimately, you're tailoring the agreement to keep national interest alive, but to survive in a very challenging global environment where no WTO-related laws have been left to be respected," Sitharaman said, adding that everybody's broken the law.

Bilateral Investment Treaty

Sitharaman also said at the meeting that a new template for bilateral investment treaties is ready, which will be approved shortly by the cabinet, and that the government is placing great emphasis on bilateral investment protection.

"In the last one and a half years, I've worked on a new template for a bilateral protection agreement. Even as that was being worked out, we've had agreements signed with several countries, the latest being Saudi Arabia," she said, adding that the government is negotiating with countries with many more of those elements included in the new template.

The finance minister said the latest pact with Saudi Arabia brings in elements that are much more sharply focused and to the benefit of investors from both sides.

"This new template, beyond 2016, broadly giving some elements into these recently concluded agreements, is soon to get the cabinet approval," she said.

Negotiations with Canada have already started, keeping in mind the elements likely to be approved by the cabinet, Sitharaman said. "If everything goes well with Canada - I hope either December or sometime early next year - I should do the same with Canada as well," she said, adding that negotiations are on with many other countries, including Russia.