Little room for ‘giving and taking’: India’s finance minister confirms trade impasse with the U.S.

US President Donald Trump (R) prepares to shake hands with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a bilateral meeting as part of the G7 summit, in Evian, eastern France, on June 17, 2026. Mandel Ngan | Afp | Getty ImagesIndia's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said trade talks with the U.S. had reached a plateau, adding to growing skepticism around a deal between New Delhi and Washington."Negotiations are still ongoing, although we'd like to believe that both sides have reached a plateau beyond which giving or taking might be very very difficult," Sitharaman said, speaking to the press at the Munich Leaders Meeting in New Delhi on Monday.The finance minister's comments come just after U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer last week said a trade agreement was not 'imminent' even as the negotiations were ongoing. Sitharaman's comments mark the first time India has acknowledged the challenges it faces in closing the trade deal with the U.S. She said the U.S. wants to "reduce" its trade imbalance with India, and they want to make up "for all that they've lost over these years.""When you're talking of trade and trade imbalance being the sole criteria to reduce the imbalance, ...