New Delhi: Trade parleys with US evolving, have room to ‘rebalance’: Piyush Goyal
Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said the India-US joint statement of February 6 provides for rebalancing of the proposed interim trade deal if circumstances change, adding that New Delhi is watching the evolving situation following the US Supreme Court’s verdict.
Speaking at the News18 Rising Bharat Summit 2026 in New Delhi, Goyal said India values comparative advantage over its competitors more than the tariff rate per se. His comments were with reference to the joint statement — released on February 7 by India time — in which Washington committed to reduce tariffs on Indian goods from 50% to 18% in exchange for preferential access of its products in the Indian market. The 18% tariff would have made India’s labour-intensive goods competitive against rivals such as China, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Indonesia. But before the two sides could sign a formal agreement, the US Supreme Court on February 20 struck down President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs imposed under emergency powers.
On a question — “is our position changing” — regarding the commitments proposed by both sides in the joint statement before the court’s verdict, Goyal said: “As I said, this is an evolving situation, we’ll have to see.” He was hinting at the fast-changing landscape in Washington, where the administration has been signalling its intent to use alternative legal tools since the ruling. “They have many other tools that they could possibly use. They have already used one of them, Section 122, by which they put a 10% tariff. I think they are on record that next week they may increase it to 15% for the first 150 days. So, there are different evolving dialogues that are going on. We’ll have to watch,” he said.
He then pointed to a safeguard built into the joint statement itself. “By the way, you must have read the joint statement that we had finalised with the US. It has categorically said that should circumstances change, the deal would be rebalanced… so that the balance of the deal is maintained on both sides,” Goyal said. According to the joint statement released by the commerce ministry on February 7, the two sides agreed to include a rebalancing clause in the proposed interim agreement. “In the event of any changes to the agreed upon tariffs of either country, the United States and India agree that the other country may modify its commitments,” the clause said.
Explaining the government’s broader strategy on free trade agreements, Goyal said: “We started engaging from 2021-22 with developed nations, unlike the Congress era, where they used to do free trade agreements largely with competitors.” India has in recent years signed FTAs with major trading partners including the United Arab Emirates, Australia, the four-nation European Free Trade Association bloc, the United Kingdom and the 27-nation European Union.
“Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi’s strategy was to engage with the developed world, but engage from a position of strength — engage keeping in mind our strategic interests, our sensitivities, yet open the doors for greater engagement with the world. And that strategy, I think, helped us quickly build up very robust, very good, win-win situations with our trading partners,” he added.
Replying to a question on whether the Supreme Court’s ruling had given India more negotiating space, Goyal said: “This is an evolving situation. We are watching what is happening. We are in dialogue with the administration in the US and, of course, in internal consultations. We will have to wait and watch and ensure the best interests of India are protected.”
On US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick’s lunch with him in New Delhi on Thursday, Goyal noted in Hindi that even before the Supreme Court’s February 20 ruling, a lower court had delivered a similar verdict on Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in mid-2025 — suggesting that India-US engagement had continued through earlier legal uncertainty and would continue the same approach.
“For us, the US is a very important trading partner,” Goyal said, adding that the two countries also share a strategic relationship. He pointed to India’s target of attracting $200 billion in investments in data centres and AI-related ventures, and opportunities in pharmaceuticals, gems and jewellery, textiles and smartphones as areas where deeper partnership with Washington could deliver results. “We have 40 million people working in the textile sector,” he said.
Goyal reiterated that the Indian dairy sector is “completely” exempted from the proposed trade deal, as are sensitive items including wheat, rice, maize, soymeal, poultry and GM food.
On what the deal could eventually deliver, Goyal was expansive. “The reduction in tariff is an opportunity for everybody to continue to export without hindrance. But the deal was better because it had many other elements. Whenever you finally see the deal, you will realise — oh my god, this is also there! So till we finally ink it, I am not in a position to share every detail. But I can assure you, there are so many more positives to the deal,” he said.
He returned to the principle of comparative advantage to explain his confidence. “Trade is not only about what the tariff is — it is more about the competitive advantage you get over your competition. At 50% tariff, we were at a huge disadvantage in our exports.”
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