India-US trade negotiations have reached a plateau beyond which further concessions would be very difficult, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday. Speaking at the Munich Leaders Meeting in New Delhi, she said the proposed agreement had been hard and very vigorously negotiated, and that talks were still ongoing.

The minister said the bilateral trade balance currently favours India, and that Washington was seeking to reduce its deficit. The two countries agreed on a framework for an interim bilateral trade agreement in February 2026 and had set a goal of more than doubling bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said last week that a deal was not imminent.

Scope for compromise has narrowed after US legislation gave President Donald Trump authority to impose tariffs of up to 100 per cent on countries buying significant Russian oil, including India. Greer met Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal in the United States last week and called the talks constructive. Agriculture, market access and India’s Russian oil purchases remain sensitive areas.