A much-anticipated trade deal between India and the U.S. is at “a very advanced stage,” India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri told CNBC Tuesday.
“I would try and look at the positive side, I’m not a soothsayer, I don’t know when trade deals will get signed, how long it takes … but I think one [everybody] needs to chill a bit,” he told CNBC’s Amitoj Singh.
“I’m told by the people who are in it [the negotiations] that it’s at a very advanced stage, and I’m hoping that, sooner rather than later, it will also see the light of day,” he added.
Describing the relationship between the U.S. as “very strong,” Singh Puri said India supported a multilateral trading system and this was evident in the free trade agreement deal with the European Union, announced earlier Tuesday.
That open-to-trade stance would be of benefit to Washington as trade talks continued, he added.
“There’s an economic opportunity here for others who want trade deals. So let’s try and shift it around. I think it’s going to be a mutual benefit, not only for the EU … but the United States and elsewhere also,” he said.
This is a developing story, please check back for further updates.
