By Shivangi Acharya
NEW DELHI, Oct 5 (Reuters) – India and the United States have reached a plateau in their trade deal talks, India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday, a further sign that the two sides have hit a wall on a crucial deal.
Giving or taking more beyond that plateau would be “very, very difficult” for both countries, Sitharaman said at an event in New Delhi.
“Maybe if there are rooms to operate from, both sides would do it,” she added.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said last week that an agreement was not imminent, after a meeting with Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal in the United States.
“It’s been a hard and very vigorously negotiated agreement. The negotiations are still ongoing,” Sitharaman said.
The two countries have been negotiating a trade agreement since February 2025 as they seek to deepen economic ties and resolve long-standing market access issues.
Sitharaman said the trade balance between the two countries was in India’s favour and the deficit was Washington’s.
“They would want to reduce that imbalance,” she said.
Reuters reported earlier this year that India was holding out for better terms in the trade deal with the US.
(Reporting by Shivangi Acharya; Writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Christian Schmollinger)
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