{"id":236777,"date":"2025-04-07T19:05:43","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T19:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peoplebugs.com\/world-news\/jaishankar-rubio-pitch-for-early-conclusion-of-the-bilateral-trade-agreement\/"},"modified":"2025-04-07T22:50:16","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T22:50:16","slug":"jaishankar-rubio-pitch-for-early-conclusion-of-the-bilateral-trade-agreement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peoplebugs.com\/world-news\/jaishankar-rubio-pitch-for-early-conclusion-of-the-bilateral-trade-agreement\/","title":{"rendered":"Jaishankar, Rubio pitch for early conclusion of the Bilateral Trade Agreement"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke over the telephone, the first such high-level conversation since U.S. President Donald Trump announced what he called \u201creciprocal tariffs\u201d on dozens of countries, slapping 26% rates on all Indian imports, last week.\u00a0File photo: X\/@DrSJaishankar via ANI\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Amidst turbulence across global markets including in India over the tariffs announced by the U.S. administration, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the need to speed up India-U.S. Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) negotiations underway. Mr. Jaishankar and Mr. Rubio spoke over the telephone on Monday (April 7, 2025) evening, the first such high-level conversation since U.S. President Donald Trump announced what he called \u201creciprocal tariffs\u201d on dozens of countries<\/a>, slapping 26% rates on all Indian imports, last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first \u201cbase-line\u201d round of 10% tariffs were implemented on April 5, while the remaining 16% would be implemented from April 9. On Monday, markets around the world declined sharply, with India\u2019s Sensex and Nifty losing more than 3%<\/a> each.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGood to speak with\u00a0US Secretary of State Rubio today,\u201d Mr. Jaishankar said on social media platform x. \u201c[We] agreed on the importance of the early conclusion of the Bilateral Trade Agreement.\u00a0[I] look forward to remaining in touch,\u201d he wrote in a post. Indian and U.S. trade officials concluded a round of talks in Delhi on the BTA on March 26-29, and finalised the contours of the negotiations ahead.<\/p>\n

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Good to speak with @SecRubio<\/a> today. <\/p>\n

Exchanged perspectives on the Indo-Pacific, the Indian Sub-continent, Europe, Middle East\/West Asia and the Caribbean. <\/p>\n

Agreed on the importance of the early conclusion of the Bilateral Trade Agreement. <\/p>\n

Look forward to remaining in touch.\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) April 7, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

India has thus far not retaliated to the U.S. tariffs, with officials saying the government is pinning hopes on concluding the first part of a BTA this year, which would sufficiently reduce tariffs from India and broaden market access for U.S. goods, consequently softening the Trump administration\u2019s position. A commerce Ministry statement had said only that officials were \u201cstudying\u201d the tariffs closely.<\/p>\n

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In an interview after Mr. Trump\u2019s announcement, U.S. Treasury Secretary had warned countries being tariffed not to impose counter-tariffs. \u201cMy advice is do not retaliate, sit back, take it in, let\u2019s see how it goes. If you retaliate there will be escalation, if you don\u2019t retaliate, this would be the high watermark.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday (April 7, 2025), Mr. Trump said he would impose further tariffs of 50% on China<\/a>, that has already been hit with 34% tariff rates and another 20% prior to that, if it didn\u2019t cancel its order to impose a matching 34% tariff increase on U.S. goods. The announcement sparked further fears of a global trade war and sent US stocks spiralling downwards as well.<\/p>\n

Mr. Jaishankar said he and Mr. Rubio had also \u201cexchanged\u00a0perspectives on the Indo-Pacific, the Indian Sub-continent, Europe, Middle East\/West Asia and the Caribbean,\u201d but didn\u2019t given any further details of the discussions.<\/p>\n

Neither Mr. Rubio nor the U.S. State department had commented on the conversation until midnight. Prior to this call, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State\u00a0Christopher Landau had also spoken on March 28, 2025 about a number of bilateral issues, while U.S. NSA Michael Waltz is due to hold talks with NSA Ajit Doval in Delhi later this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Published – April 08, 2025 12:35 am IST<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n