India geared up for ‘high degree’ of urgency: EAM Jaishankar on negotiations for trade agreements with US, EU

NEW DELHI: The Trump administration was quick in responding to what was tabled for a bilateral trade pact with India and New Delhi is geared up for a “very high” degree of urgency in concluding trade deals with the US, the European Union and the UK, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Friday.
In an interactive session at the Global Technology summit, he said the US under President Donald Trump has fundamentally changed its approach to engaging with the world and it has consequences across every key domain, especially in the technology sector.
His remarks came as Trump’s policy on tariffs triggered massive trade disruptions and fears of a global economic recession.
On Wednesday, Trump announced a 90-day pause on his sweeping tariffs on all countries, except China as countries around the world wilted under the impact of the seismic action.
Jaishankar, without sharing any specific details of negotiations between India and the US on the proposed trade pact, indicated that New Delhi was keen to conclude it as early as possible.
“Within a month of change in the administration, we actually have conceptually an agreement that we will do a bilateral trade agreement; that we will find a fix that will work for both of us because we have our concerns too. And its not an open ended process,” he said.
“We did four years of talking in the first Trump administration. They have their view of us and frankly we have our view of them. The bottom line is that the deal didn’t get done,” he said.
Following talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump in Washington DC in February, the two sides announced to negotiate the first tranche of the BTA by the fall of 2025. Jaishankar also referred to India’s negotiations with the European Union for a free trade agreement.