India-U.S. trade talks remain unresolved, External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said, as a framework ties removal of U.S. reciprocal duties on a wider range of designated goods to the successful conclusion of an interim pact.
NDTV reported that Jaishankar told the NDTV World Summit in New Delhi on Thursday, Oct. 22, that negotiating teams were working through challenges in the final stage of talks. He did not identify the remaining issues or give a timetable. “It’s never done till it’s done,” he said.
The U.S. Department of State transcript records U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying in Mumbai on Tuesday, Oct. 20, that “a small number of items” remained to be completed. Rubio said he hoped for an announcement soon.
A joint U.S.-India statement announced a framework for an interim trade agreement on Feb. 6, 2026. It proposed that India lower or remove tariffs on U.S. industrial goods and a wide range of food and agricultural imports. For specified Indian-origin goods, the framework set out an 18% U.S. rate under reciprocal tariffs. Removing that duty from a wider group of designated goods would depend on the interim agreement’s successful conclusion.
The statement also recorded India’s intention to buy $500 billion worth of U.S. goods over five years, including energy products, aircraft and parts, precious metals, technology products and coking coal. It described the framework as an effort to expand reciprocal market access and build more resilient supply chains. The purchase figure is an intention in the framework, not a record of completed transactions.
The governments said they would continue negotiations on both the interim pact and a broader bilateral trade agreement. A separate U.S.-India leaders’ statement from February 2025 set a goal of more than doubling bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030 and called for negotiating a first tranche by fall 2025. That trade target is distinct from the framework’s five-year purchase intention. The 2026 framework gave no signing date; it said work toward the interim agreement would continue.
