The long-awaited trade deal between India and the United States is at a “very advanced stage,” Indian Oil and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told CNBC on Tuesday.
“I’m going to try to look on the positive side. I’m not a fortune teller, so I don’t know when a trade deal will happen or how long it will take. But I think (everyone) needs to calm down a little bit,” he told CNBC’s Amitij Singh as India and the EU announced a landmark trade deal.
“I’ve heard from the people involved[in the negotiations]that it’s at a very advanced stage, and I’m hopeful that it will see the light of day sooner rather than later,” he added of the U.S. deal.
Singh Puri described relations with the US as “very strong” and said India supports the multilateral trading system, as evidenced by the free trade agreement agreement with the European Union announced earlier on Tuesday.
He added that an open stance on trade would be in the United States’ interests as trade negotiations continue.
“There is an economic opportunity here for other countries that want a trade deal. So let’s change that. I think it will be mutually beneficial, not only for the EU, but also for the United States and other countries,” he said.
There may be some concern in New Delhi on Tuesday over how US President Donald Trump will react to a new trade deal with the European Union that would see both countries phase out tariffs on most of each other’s imports.
Despite agreeing a trade deal with the EU and continuing trade talks toward a deal with India, the US maintains punitive tariffs on imports from both countries’ trading partners. The EU imposed a 15% tariff on exports to the US, while India was slapped with an even more punitive 50% tariff due to its continued purchases of oil from Russia.
President Trump has yet to publicly react to the EU-India deal announced early Tuesday morning European time. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has already criticized the EU for pursuing a trade deal with India.
“The United States has made far greater sacrifices than European countries. We imposed 25% tariffs on India for buying Russian oil. Guess what happened last week? European countries signed trade deals with India,” Bessent told ABC News on Sunday.
