&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "India-US trade deal talks hit ‘plateau’, Nirmala Sitharaman says")
India-US trade deal talks have reached a "plateau,", said Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on October 5. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, she claimed that a concessions or a reciprocal give-and-take from either side would be "very very difficult." She added that Washington wants to reduce deficit with India, and address perceived past losses.
"It's been a hard and very rigorously negotiated agreement. The negotiations are still ongoing. Although we'd like to believe that both sides have reached a plateau beyond which giving or taking might be very very difficult," said Sitharaman. "But maybe if there are rooms to operate from both sides would do it."
US is one of the very few nation with which India runs a trade surplus. In the 2025-26 financial year, bilateral trade between the two nations hit a record $140.80 billion. India's exports to the US reached $87.32 billion while imports from the US stood at $53.49 billion. The US has been seeking to narrow its trade deficit with India, while New Delhi has been looking to secure greater market access and protect areas considered sensitive.
"Negotiation used to be the only platform through which countries could highlight the discrepancies, highlight the lopsidedness, and say would we want to correct this. And how would you correct it because you have demand in your country, I can supply, so open up on that," she said.
“Now the imbalance is being sought to be addressed through other means, where you rightly said tariff has become weaponised,” said Nirmala sitharaman.
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Contrastingly India runs a massive trade deficit with India which has continued to widen since 2014. The bilateral trade volume between India and China for 2025-26 is at $151.10 billion. Driven by a 16% surge in industrial imports, China overtook the US to become India's single largest trading partner. While India runs a $112.16 billion deficit with China.
"The trade imbalance with China for India, for instance, since 2014 has been growing exponentially," she said. "So I can probably take the same position with China because it's so lopsided it is terribly against me. But, no - you can't. You will have to talk it out. You will have to negotiate. You will have to have some give and take. That's the difference."
On Saturday, United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said that India-US trade deal was at final stages but not “imminent”.The current impasse follows a foundational framework for an interim trade agreement that both nations officially announced in February 2026.
