Trade Agreements With US, EU To Be Concluded Soon: FM
The country’s export growth of 6.3 per cent has significantly outpaced the global average of 4 per cent despite an increasingly complex geopolitical landscape”: Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman
New Delhi: Amidst the ongoing trade talks between India and the US, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said that the trade pact with both the US and the European Union (EU) are progressing at a fast pace and are likely to be concluded soon. As the government is targeting a $2 trillion export by 2030, it is making its all-out effort to boost the trade in several nations, including the US and EU.
Praising Indian exporters, the finance minister also assured them of every possible government support amid the challenging global environment. “The country’s export growth of 6.3 per cent has significantly outpaced the global average of 4 per cent despite an increasingly complex geopolitical landscape,” Sitharaman said at Exim Bank’s Trade Conclave 2025 here in the capital.
The finance minister pointed out that India’s total exports have touched an all-time high of $825 billion at 6 per cent growth over the previous year, despite a challenging global environment. “This is a significant leap of $466 billion over 2013-14. The emphasis now is on concluding more free trade agreements soon,” she said.
She also said that India has already signed free trade agreements with the UAE, Australia, and 4-nation EFTA (European Free Trade Association) bloc and negotiations have been completed with the UK. With the US and the European Union, negotiations are really intensely going on and should come to a conclusion sooner,” she said.
She also said that while global exports grew by only 4 per cent, India’s exporters managed to fast-track and cross growth of 6.3 per cent despite global uncertainties on the trade front. Observing that exporters are ‘swimming against tides’, she assured all support to them and urged them to focus on innovation and finding newer markets for their products.
Quoting United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) World Investment Report 2025, she said, India’s position has improved though the global FDI flows dropped 11 per cent. “Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows of nearly $668 billion from 2014-24 account for nearly 67 per cent of the total FDI reported in the last 24 years which was $991 billion,” she said.
Meanwhile, the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman also rejected the allegation that India is a ‘tariff king’ saying that her latest Budget brought down the number of tariff rates to eight and the effective rate is far lower. On ‘tariff-king commentary’ which was made in the US, she said, “I want two things to be remembered. Given our system of things, we seek parliamentary approval for deciding on the tariff rate and the permission to go up to a certain level but effectively you are at a far lower level.”
