India needs to expand its ambitions to consider FTA with US: Ashley Tellis

He expressed happiness over US President Donald Trump's decision to enforce a 90-day pause on wide-ranging tariffs and lower the reciprocal tariff on India and other countries that have initiated trade talks with the United States during this period to 10 per cent.

On Trump's 90-day pause on tariffs on India and other nations, he said, "I think it is an interval of opportunity. It creates a space for both sides to put their minds to finding a solution that will be durable and that will allow us to then move the trade dispute to the side and focus on the other areas where there is very strong complementarity between the US and India. So, I'm actually quite delighted that the president has chosen to enforce a pause because it gives the markets a chance to catch up. It gives our partners a chance to figure out what they need to do next, and it offers the hope that we will actually be able to reach a resolution, especially with the most important trade partners we have."

Trump paused the reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries that have engaged in negotiations with the US administration, but for China, the tariffs were hiked to 145 per cent.

Reacting to the Global Trade Research Initiative's suggestion that India should avoid a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the US, he said, "Well, I think India needs to expand its ambitions to really consider at some point a free trade agreement with the United States. There has been a remarkable change in Indian policy in recent years on this question. When Prime Minister Modi came into office, he came into office with a little scepticism about India's previous free trade agreements. Now, I think India has recognised that if it is to sustain its economic growth over the long term, the larger its trading relationships with the outside world, the better it is, and the United States is among the top 3 partners that the US has in international trade. So, to my mind, we must not be looking for ways to escape. The ambition is to have a genuine free trade agreement. Now, it will take a lot of time. It's a very difficult agreement because the relative state of development between the US and India is vast. The gaps are very vast, but we should certainly hold that out as the objective that we both want to reach."

On whether India should consider a limited Zero-to-Zero tariff deal on 90 per cent of industrial goods, he said, "I think that is great. I mean, my view is that that should be the norm between friends anyway, and I would like to see that kind of an arrangement materialise between India and Europe. Between India and the United States and between India and its East Asian partners, there is no reason why in today's world, which has such diversified supply chains, that we should be having tariffs on merchandise at all."

Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) suggested that India should avoid signing a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States, as it may require India to make harmful trade-offs.

Instead, GTRI said, India should consider a limited "Zero-to-Zero" tariff deal on 90 per cent of industrial goods, a model already offered by Europe to the US

It said, "Avoid a comprehensive FTA with the US as it would force India to make damaging concessions. It's a deal that would cost India more than it gains. Restrict to zero-for-zero deals on 90 per cent of industrial Goods. Europe has offered a similar deal to the US."

Earlier in February, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday said that the first tranche of the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) with the United States is expected to be concluded by the fall of 2025. He made the remarks at the ET NOW Global Business Summit 2025.