Negotiations underway on reciprocal tariffs by U.S.: Nirmala Sitharaman

Negotiations underway on reciprocal tariffs by U.S.: Nirmala Sitharaman. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has already gone to the U.S., and we will take a call based on the outcome, says the Union Finance Minister.

Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman has said “we will have to wait for the outcome of the negotiations by Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal with the U.S. on the reciprocal tariffs proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.”

Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman, along with Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary and a host of top officials of the Finance Department, was addressing the media on the Union Budget 2025-2026 in Visakhapatnam on Thursday.

When her attention was drawn to the impact of reciprocal tariffs on imports, Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman said, “Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has already gone to the U.S. He will be talking with the Commerce Secretary and US Trade Representative (USTR). Before going, he has consulted various stakeholders. Based on the negotiations, we will take a call.”’

She said they would keep Indian exports in mind as there were a lot of questions on how the country’s export interests could be protected.

When asked about the impact of reciprocal tariffs on the relationship between the two nations, she said both the countries had to take care of their interests and negotiate.

Earlier, Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman and Mr. Pankaj Chaudhary launched the New Credit Assessment Model based on the score of digital footprints of the MSMEs.

It was announced in the Union Budget 2024-25 that the Public Sector Banks (PSBs) would build their in-house capability to assess the MSMEs for credit, instead of relying on external assessment.