Amid the approaching April 2 deadline for the reciprocal tariffs initiated by President Donald Trump, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday that the government was closely watching the ongoing trade negotiations with the United States.

“We will have to see how the Commerce Ministry handles the negotiations in the US,” Sitharaman said.

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She reassured that the interests of Indian exporters have been effectively communicated to US counterparts, and key actions taken by the government, such as conducting stakeholder consultations prior to negotiations, facilitating active discussions led by Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal in the US, and maintaining ongoing data-sharing with relevant industry groups to ensure that exporters’ concerns are addressed and protected.

Sitharaman’s comments came at a time when Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal is on a visit to the US for discussions aimed at safeguarding Indian exporters’ interests.

The finance minister was speaking at the launch of the book ‘The Glimpses of World History’ in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.

A couple of days ago, the US president set a deadline of April 2 for reciprocal tariffs to take effect, adding that India would not receive any concessions.

Addressing  a joint session of Congress, he said, “India charges us 100 per cent tariffs; the system is not fair to the US, it never was. On April 2, reciprocal tariffs kick in. Whatever they tax us, we will tax them. If they use non-monetary tariffs to keep us out of their market, then we will use non-monetary barriers to keep them out of our market.”

The finance minister had earlier said that India would need to play a crucial role in the “global reset” as the new world order will not be determined by the developed nations. “Bilateralism is now taking the top of the agenda… It is for us to ramp up our bilateral relations with many countries, not just for trade, not just for investment, but also for strategic relations. So, multilateralism, sort of, out, I’m still saying with a qualifying word ‘sort of out’, but bilateralism is very much your only catalytic tool that you can use,” she had said.