'Very Close, Will Happen': US Envoy Sergio Gor To NDTV On Trade Deal

The India-US trade deal is "very close" and "will happen", Ambassador Sergio Gor said on Thursday. The American envoy, a close aide of President Donald Trump, added that the agreement had to be reworked after a ruling by the US Supreme Court.

"At some point it'll get finalised. We are very close," Gor told NDTV in an exclusive interview. "We're incredible trading partners, right? So it will happen. I'm confident it'll happen. Both sides want it to happen. And it'll be a win-win for both of our nations."

Gor's remarks came on the day India's Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said the first tranche was undergoing legal drafting. "The US bilateral trade agreement first tranche has been finalised. It's going through final contours, the legal drafting, and we hope to be able to finalise that soon and operationalise that once we get comparable advantage or competitive advantage over our peer countries," Goyal said, addressing an event in Delhi.

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Sergio Gor, when asked where the deal stood, given that it had been described as "99% done" months ago, pointed to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's remarks this week. "As Dr Jaishankar just said this week, we're almost at a landing spot... Look, this is a complex deal. There's a lot of items in it," he said.

Gor also referred to India's trade negotiations with the European Union as an example, saying that it "took 20 years". "We are at a year and a half [of negotiations], and we had one done," he added, flagging a court verdict that forced a reworking. This was apparently a reference to the US Supreme Court's judgment striking down tariffs imposed by Trump under emergency powers.

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India and the US have been in talks since early 2025 on the proposed pact. It is meant to address tariff friction, eliminate non-tariff barriers, and improve market access. India is seeking better tariffs for its goods in the US market than its competitors get.

Jaishankar, speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum this week, said negotiations were heading towards a "landing point". "When countries negotiate with an economy like the United States, obviously one part of it is what you work out between yourselves and the US, and one part of it is how do you fare vis-a-vis competitive economies," he said.

'$500 Billion In 3 Years'

Gor told NDTV that bilateral trade had grown more than tenfold in two decades. "Our trade is eclipsing $250 billion in bilateral trade today. Twenty years ago, it was less than 10% of that," he said. "And our two leaders [Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi] have set a very ambitious goal of hitting 500 billion in the next three years. Those are incredible numbers," he said.

"We do incredible things in the pharmaceutical industry. You look at IT, amazing things are happening both ways, investments into the United States and some of our biggest tech giants coming to India. And so these are win-win situations for both of our sides," he added.

He said the US embassy in India had outperformed other US missions in attracting investment. "Far ahead of anyone else... over $20 billion in new US investments," Gor said.

India-US ties went through a downturn after Washington imposed punitive tariffs on India last year. US President Donald Trump's assertions about his role in de-escalating the India-Pakistan military clashes of May 2025 also drew sharp reactions from Indian officials. The US decision to raise the H-1B visa fee, and its move to restrict a key Green Card processing programme used by Indian IT firms including Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro, have added to the strain.

F-35s 'Only Go To Trusted Partners'

Asked whether the F-35 fighter jet was on the table for India, and whether any such offer was conditional or definite, Gor said the question was one for the Pentagon.

"But I will tell you there are incredible things that are already happening," he said, noting that India conducts more military exercises with the US than any other country. He cited the recent visit of Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command. "That was actually his second visit in one year. And while he was here, in the last two weeks alone, we've had incredible exercises." In those exercises, F-35s were in India, he underlined. "The F-35s don't go into any country. They only go into trusted partner countries," Gor said.

US Attorney General to visit India in November

Gor also announced that the US Attorney General would visit India in November for a counter-narcotics conference, and that the trip would be his first. "And maybe this could be considered an announcement, but it's 99% confirmed. We'll have the Attorney General visiting us," Gor said.

"In the United States, Attorney General is a cabinet minister position and everyone in domestic law enforcement reports to him," he said. "And the reason he's coming here is that we are working with India on a counter-narcotics conference. This is something where both sides agree that these illegal narcotics, illegal substances are killing individuals in both of our nations," Gor said.

Gor also said the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, would meet Jaishankar in Mumbai during his upcoming visit. "He'll meet with a lot of other individuals from your government. But he'll also be travelling to Jamnagar," Gor said.