India-US trade deal: First tranche of BTA deal likely to conclude by end of 2025, says Commerce Secretary

India-US trade deal: India's Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agarwal, on Friday, 28 November 2025, said that India is expected to sign the first tranche of the bilateral trade agreement (BTA) with the United States within the current calendar year, reported the news agency ANI.

In a FICCI Annual General Meeting on Friday, Rajesh Agarwal said that the talks between the two parties have progressed despite the recent shifts in global trade conditions, according to the agency report.

“I think our expectations, we are very optimistic and very hopeful that we should find a solution within this calendar year,” said Rajesh Agarwal, cited the news agency.

No final deadline?

Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agarwal also said that the trade negotiations are unpredictable, and the final deadlines cannot be announced due to the issues which loom over the negotiators.

The trade negotiations are unpredictable, noting that “with any trade negotiations, the final deadlines cannot be because even if there is one sticking point or one sticking issue which is in the mind of even one of the partners, the trade deal may not meet that deadline,” the Commerce Secretary cautioned.

Even though India and the US were targeting to complete the first tranche of an India-US bilateral trade agreement by the fall of 2025 but the geopolitical landscape altered the deadlines.

“We have found lot of changes in the global trade landscape. One of the key has been in the US landscape, where it came out with reciprocal tariffs, which were imposed on all the trading partners...,” said Rajesh Agarwal, cited in the agency report.

According to the agency report, India and the US are engaged in two parallel negotiations, one with a broader Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) and the second with an immediate Framework Trade Deal amid the Trump tariffs.

Are we close on a trade deal?

In the FICCI meeting, the Commerce Secretary also said that the framework discussions are at an advanced stage, where the negotiators are close to a trade deal.

“We are close, we have tried to iron out most of the issues. Now it is only matter of time when this decision has to be taken, that when the two countries have to find the right landing zone to announce it,” said Rajesh Agarwal, according to the agency report.

Commerce Secretary also said that, “I think we need to find pathway for complete elimination of reciprocal tariff in our process of doing (full) BTA. So I think that will take a bit of time, and we'll not hurry up those we are working on various aspects of BTA.”

Rajesh Agarwal said that India is in that zone where the trade deal can be achieved in a very short while. Both countries are continuing their negotiations despite the raging 50% imposed by US President Donald Trump.