India acknowledges US-India trade deal must be 'renegotiated according to changed environment', accelerates diversified talks amid US tariff uncertainty

India's Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal stated clearly on October 10 that the finalization of the US-India trade agreement will "take into account the changed environment", acknowledging that the bilateral framework agreement announced in February this year needs to be adjusted according to new circumstances.

According to The Hindu, speaking that day at the PHDCCI chamber of commerce in New Delhi in a mix of Hindi and English, Goyal noted: "It was announced in February, but the situation has changed, and the final decision will be made taking these changes into account." He did not specify what the "changed environment" referred to—whether adjustments in US tariff policy or shifts in bilateral negotiation positions—but the statement itself acknowledges that the external conditions facing New Delhi are different from those at the time of the February talks.

Earlier this year, India and the US reached a framework agreement on the first phase of a bilateral trade deal. However, the US tariff landscape has since undergone continuous changes, placing more Indian export products under higher tax burdens. This adjustment has pushed the first phase agreement negotiations into a further consultation stage. At the same occasion, Goyal said India seeks to obtain lower tariffs in the US market than its competitors, but whether this goal can be delivered remains unclear against the backdrop of frequent tariff policy changes.

Goyal revealed that India is simultaneously advancing trade agreement negotiations with Israel, Chile, the Gulf Cooperation Council, and the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union. In outside observers' view, this layout of simultaneously advancing multi-regional negotiations represents New Delhi's active hedging against the risk of reliance on a single Western market: when tariff policy carries arbitrariness, export-oriented economies are forced to bear additional costs of negotiation and repositioning, and these costs ultimately pass through to producers and consumers. Earlier this month, Goyal met with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer during the G20 Trade Ministers' meeting in Milwaukee, but no breakthrough progress was reported.

Multiple trade tracks are advancing in parallel. India's bilateral trade agreement with the UK officially took effect in July; negotiations with Canada are accelerating; talks with the SACU group led by South Africa are about to commence; negotiations with Mexico are scheduled to begin next week. Trade ministers from the UK and Canada will visit New Delhi successively next week to attend occasions such as the India-UK Joint Economic and Trade Committee meeting.

In the same speech, Goyal also leveled sharp criticism at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's remarks following his meeting with President Murmu, calling his conduct "repugnant", "an insult to the President", and "a form of anarchism". The opposition alliance delegation to which Gandhi belongs had earlier submitted a memorandum on "electoral fraud" to the President, which the President did not deny after the meeting.