“And although the context is IMF and World Bank spring meetings, I am here to meet my counterpart as well,” Sitharaman said.
She noted that the US is India’s “biggest and topmost trading partner” and that “the importance is not lost to the government in India.” “We were among the earliest to approach the new administration in the United States to talk trade, to start the negotiation as it were for a trade deal,” she said.
“Within the first three months of the new administration, these are the visits which have happened,” Sitharaman added, referring to visits by the Prime Minister, Commerce Minister and Foreign Minister, “and the negotiations have commenced.”
She acknowledged the US side for sending the additional USTR to India to continue the process: “Equally, I appreciate the US administration in sending the additional USTR to India to continue the negotiation process. So a message that probably we are on a very engaging and productive phase is well established.”
“And if anything, the first tranche of the trade agreement I hope, will be concluded by fall this year,” Sitharaman said. “So we have been open-minded and very clearly stating the importance of this trade relationship between India and the US.”
“I am very hopeful,” she added, on the prospects of concluding the agreement.
The Finance Minister also pointed to areas of future collaboration between India and the US. “India and the United States have enjoyed a longstanding economic collaboration which can be strengthened to enable industry participation and partnership and investments in several key sectors.”
“Semiconductors, nuclear power generation, quantum computing and pharmaceuticals come to my mind as frontier areas of collaboration,” she said.
“When you have stability in government, consistency in policy, predictability in tax regime, investments and growth can be planned and executed to a large extent,” Sitharaman said. “But even with this kind of a global uncertainty, India continued to be the fastest growing economy.”