India and the United States have made substantial progress toward signing a landmark bilateral trade agreement, but following multiple rounds of talks there has been no significant breakthrough.
The reasons lie in familiar fault lines in global trade — market access, tariffs and a negotiation where neither side can afford to appear to have blinked first.
Relations between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump have become strained since they first announced negotiations for a trade deal in February 2025.
The two leaders were drawn into a diplomatic tussle in May 2025 after Trump claimed to have brokered a peace deal between India and Pakistan following the Pahalgam attack in India-administered Kashmir.
In August, the Trump administration doubled duties on a selection of Indian exports to the US over New Delhi's continued purchases of Russian oil, stacking an additional 25% duty on top of the 25% reciprocal tariff.
