India and the United States are in discussion to achieve a “mutually beneficial, balanced bilateral trade agreement” (BTA) and the trade talks are “progressing well”, Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday.
On specific questions related to the looming threat of retaliatory tariffs on multiple countries, including India by the Trump administration from April 2, Goyal said, “I think trade negotiations are going on for a bilateral trade agreement. It’s a matter that’s known to everybody ever since we saw the joint press conference by with President Trump and Prime Minister Modi, both announcing the beginning or the start of negotiations to be concluded by (the) Fall, 2025.” The minister was speaking at the Times Now Summit 2025 in New Delhi.
He said the discussions are ongoing. “They’re progressing well, and will be for the good of both the United States and India,” he added. The minister said he is in “regular and constant” dialogue with the industry representing every sectors and different organisations related to agriculture, exports, engineering, electronic and textiles. Various interest groups are in regular dialogue with the government, and “all are very excited about a potential bilateral trade agreement” with the US.
Replying to a question pertaining to the government’s blueprint for keeping India ahead in the global order and converting it into a developed nation by 2047, Goyal said that the target is to make India’s GDP grow by about eight times by 2047. “We are at about $4 trillion now, our expectation is that by 2047 India will be a $30-35 trillion economy. Estimates peg it at about $32 trillion.”
{{/usCountry}}Replying to a question pertaining to the government’s blueprint for keeping India ahead in the global order and converting it into a developed nation by 2047, Goyal said that the target is to make India’s GDP grow by about eight times by 2047. “We are at about $4 trillion now, our expectation is that by 2047 India will be a $30-35 trillion economy. Estimates peg it at about $32 trillion.”
{{/usCountry}}He said the target is achievable by the “three important pillars” envisaged by PM Modi over the last 11 years. One is to strengthen the macro-economic condition of India. “Every fundamental of the economy has been strengthened in the last 11 years,” he said.
Second, to look at inclusive and sustainable growth so that the person at the bottom of the pyramid also have a better life, which is being achieved through inclusive growth.
And third, is continuing investment and consumption-led growth that catapult India from being the fragile five about a decade ago to the fifth largest economy of the world, he said.
Elaborating on the third aspect, he said it rests on two pillars — public welfare, which has led to substantially increased consumer demand, thus consumption. And the other is focus on investments in infrastructure, that is the investment-led growth.
“When a nation is combining both investment and consumption-led growth, we naturally become the envy of the world. We become an attractive place to invest in. We become an attractive country to trade with, and today, that is the situation in which we are engaging with the developed nations of the world,” he said.
His remark related to the developed world point at India’s engagement with the European Union and the United Kingdom to forge separate free trade agreements (FTAs).
Besides, India is engaged with the US, fast-tracking a BTA negotiations current held between the two partners in New Delhi.