Exporters urge India, US to continue talks on trade agreement

India and the United States should continue discussions to resolve outstanding issues and conclude a mutually beneficial trade agreement, exporters said, amid concerns that high tariffs imposed by Washington are affecting bilateral trade.

Exporters said that the 50 per cent tariffs imposed by the US on Indian goods are already hurting trade flows, and any further increase in duties would significantly impact India’s exports to the American market.

“Both sides should continue their talks for the agreement,” Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President SC Ralhan said.

An exporter from the leather sector said the US remains a key market for Indian exporters and that an early conclusion of a trade agreement would help boost the country’s exports.

“Though we are exploring new markets, the US is a key market,” the exporter said.

An exporter from the engineering sector said that a bilateral trade agreement between India and the US would help reduce uncertainty on the trade front.

Meanwhile, think tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said the ongoing India-US trade impasse reflects substantive policy differences rather than a failure of communication.

“Framing the delay as a matter of personal diplomacy may offer a convenient narrative, but it obscures the substantive disagreements that both sides have yet to resolve and risks trivialising one of the most consequential trade relationships in the global economy,” GTRI founder Ajay Srivastava said.

India on Friday rejected as “inaccurate” remarks by US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who said that a proposed trade deal between the two countries could not be finalised last year because Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not make a telephone call to President Donald Trump.

New Delhi also asserted that it remained interested in concluding a “mutually beneficial” trade deal between the two “complementary economies” and noted that Modi and Trump held telephonic conversations on eight occasions in 2025, covering different aspects of bilateral ties.

Lutnick, speaking on a podcast, said that India had been given “three Fridays” to seal the trade agreement and that Modi needed to call Trump to close the deal.

The latest exchange came at a time when India-US relations are passing through what has been described as one of their most challenging phases in the last two decades.

In his comments during an interview on Thursday, Lutnick outlined reasons for why the India-US trade deal has not been concluded so far.

(With inputs from agencies)