At the ETSA event, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal addressed attendees shortly after returning from a visit to the United States, during which he participated in the G20 Trade Ministers' Meeting and held talks with the Trump administration on a bilateral trade agreement. Speaking with a prominent news outlet, he covered a range of topics, including India's trade arrangements, the state of India-US ties, the flow of foreign investment, and the potential openings that restrictions on the green card programme could create for Indian businesses.

Acknowledging that deep interconnection between two nations — spanning their leaders, governments, businesses, and populations — tends to generate periodic friction, Minister Goyal expressed the view that both India and the United States broadly understand the partnership to be one of lasting consequence, and that each side holds an interest in seeing it strengthened over time. He pointed to the lasting effects the relationship stands to leave on the global economy as the more meaningful measure to track, urging attention toward the broader arc rather than individual moments.

Goyal told reporters that neither H-1B visas nor the green card programme had come up in any of his exchanges with American counterparts throughout his seven-and-a-half years heading the commerce portfolio. The position put forward drew a distinction between immigration — viewed as falling outside the scope of free trade agreements and unconnected to trade as such — and the movement of people to deliver services, which was described as an altogether different matter. The remarks also held that nations retain the authority to oversee and impose regulations within their own borders.

Goyal argued that a tightening of H-1B visa allocations could work in India's favour, given that a long-standing pattern of skilled professionals leaving for the United States has drained domestic talent, while shifts in working arrangements since the pandemic have reduced the premium placed on being physically present in any one location. Cities including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Gurugram, Noida, and Mumbai were identified as home to an expanding share of global capability centre operations. According to his account, a number of US companies are exploring plans to expand their presence in India.

Goyal told reporters that the landscape had shifted from where things stood in February, when both governments had announced an agreement in principle on the bilateral trade deal, adding that a ruling from the US Supreme Court had altered the executive authority underpinning IEEPA tariffs and that teams were now exploring other frameworks to replace them. As he explained it, a free trade arrangement grants one trading partner favoured access to a given market over rivals — a benefit that does not depend on tariffs being eliminated entirely.

Nine free-trade agreements, covering 38 developed nations, form the basis of what he described as a framework that would grant India preferential access to economies collectively valued at $85 trillion in GDP once all such deals are in place. Talks with the US were continuing, he noted, with foundational terms locked in since February and lawyers now working through the remaining contractual details.

Minister Goyal described the EU free trade agreement as finalised, adding that the EU had moved through its approval process at a pace not previously seen in comparable negotiations. The closure had been publicly announced on January 27, with the deal set to take effect by early next year, and every one of the 27 EU member nations had given their approval without a single dissenting vote.

Addressing questions about Russian oil tariffs, Minister Goyal outlined that sour medium-quality crude sourced from both the Middle East and Russia forms the backbone of what Indian refineries process, that purchases of American oil and gas have been running at notable volumes, and that keeping a spread of energy suppliers rather than concentrating on any single source underpins how the country manages its supply chain.

Three considerations shaped Minister Goyal's explanation of FDI and capital market outflows: the pull of Western technology stocks, a bond yield gap between the US and India that has been closing, and India's artificial intelligence sector still finding its footing.

Funding for homegrown startups to take part in international exhibitions, conferences, and trade showcases is something both the ministry and the broader government stand ready to provide, Minister Goyal indicated. Drawing on the Bharat Innovates initiative as an example, he pointed to a programme that sifted 130 deep technology startups out of a pool of 3,000 Indian applicants and brought the selected cohort to an event held in Nice, France. Indian businesses received an urging from Goyal to extend their reach into international markets, rather than confining their ambitions to the opportunities available at home.