Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday that she would like to see a trade deal between India and the United States concluded as soon as possible, noting that stronger bilateral commerce ties would serve both economies. She pointed to recent remarks by the Commerce Minister, who had also voiced a desire for the agreement to be formalised without delay, and talks between the two sides have continued.
Sitharaman expressed a desire for the bilateral trade agreement to be wrapped up quickly, framing the outcome as beneficial for commerce flowing between the two nations. Goyal, who holds the commerce and industry portfolio, told reporters on Thursday that the opening phase of a bilateral trade agreement between India and the United States had been completed and was moving through the legal drafting process.
Addressing an Atlantic Council session on the margins of the IMF-World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok, Thailand, Sitharaman pointed to the widening gap between imports and exports with China, along with what she described as ongoing barriers to entry for Indian goods in that market, as issues that had not been resolved through extended bilateral dialogue.
She noted that repeated attempts by India to open the Chinese market to exports including generic pharmaceuticals, bovine meat, vegetables, and other perishable goods had yielded little tangible result across years of bilateral engagement, with phytosanitary requirements and other non-tariff restrictions identified as the principal obstacles in the two countries' trading relationship. She also pointed to the availability of formal consultative and investigative channels that could be drawn upon to work through such disputes.
Bilateral negotiations remained the preferred path for addressing trade imbalances, she noted, rather than levying punitive tariffs on partner countries — a slower route, but one she indicated the approach favoured nonetheless.
Addressing the BRICS grouping, Sitharaman described it as a forum built around the collective wellbeing of member populations rather than any adversarial purpose, adding that she did not believe the bloc held any intention of positioning itself against other nations or groupings. The goal, she noted, was to deepen ties through the BRICS framework.
Pointing to BRICS membership spanning close to 40 per cent of the global population, she put forward the view that deeper ties between member nations held the potential to strengthen trade flows, build cross-border understanding, and open up broader economic pathways. Taken together, the 11 to 12 nations now participating in the grouping — a figure that has grown with recent additions — handle roughly 45 per cent of worldwide trade through their mutual dealings, she noted.
Sitharaman pointed to data showing India had maintained an expansion trajectory through a period of worldwide economic instability, ranking it among the top performers by growth rate among large economies across the four or five years that followed the COVID-19 pandemic. Broad-based growth, expanded access to resources, youth skill-building programmes, disciplined public finances, and a stepped-up commitment to state-led capital investment were the factors she pointed to in explaining the country's performance.
Spending public money on infrastructure produces a wider economic dividend than distributing equivalent funds to individual households, the finance minister contended, adding that such investment also sustains employment and keeps business activity from stalling. Public spending on infrastructure, she contended, could channel funds into the broader economy and help sustain household incomes while placing a lighter fiscal load on public accounts than several alternative expenditure routes would.
Sitharaman maintained that government borrowing tracks closely with infrastructure spending, with debt-funded asset creation delivering broader economic gains, a position she reinforced by noting that expenditure directed toward assets had produced measurable returns for the wider economy.
