Jaishankar-Rubio pitch for early conclusion of the Bilateral Trade Agreement

India and U.S. officials discuss speeding up Bilateral Trade Agreement negotiations amidst global market turbulence and tariffs.

Amidst turbulence across global markets including in India over the tariffs announced by the U.S. administration, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the need to speed up India-U.S. Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) negotiations underway. Mr. Jaishankar and Mr. Rubio spoke over the telephone on Monday (April 7, 2025) evening, the first such high-level conversation since U.S. President Donald Trump announced what he called “reciprocal tariffs” on dozens of countries, slapping 26% rates on all Indian imports, last week. 

The first “base-line” round of 10% tariffs were implemented on April 5, while the remaining 16% would be implemented from April 9. On Monday, markets around the world declined sharply, with India’s Sensex and Nifty losing more than 3% each. 

“Good to speak with US Secretary of State Rubio today,” Mr. Jaishankar said on social media platform x. “[We] agreed on the importance of the early conclusion of the Bilateral Trade Agreement. [I] look forward to remaining in touch,” he wrote in a post. Indian and US trade officials concluded a round of talks in Delhi on the BTA on March 26-29, and finalised the contours of the negotiations ahead.

India has thus far not retaliated to the U.S. tariffs, with officials saying the government is pinning hopes on concluding the first part of a BTA this year, which would sufficiently reduce tariffs from India and broaden market access for US goods, consequently softening the Trump administration’s position. A commerce Ministry statement had said only that officials were “studying” the tariffs closely.

In an interview after Mr. Trump’s announcement, U.S. Treasury Secretary had warned countries being tariffed not to impose counter-tariffs. “My advice is do not retaliate, sit back, take it in, let’s see how it goes. If you retaliate there will be escalation, if you don’t retaliate, this would be the high watermark.”

On Monday, Mr. Trump said he would impose further tariffs of 50% on China, that has already been hit with 34% tariff rates and another 20% prior to that, if it didn’t cancel its order to impose a matching 34% tariff increase on U.S. goods. The announcement sparked further fears of a global trade war and sent US stocks spiralling downwards as well.

Mr. Jaishankar said he and Mr. Rubio had also “exchanged perspectives on the Indo-Pacific, the Indian Sub-continent, Europe, Middle East/West Asia and the Caribbean,” but didn’t given any further details of the discussions.