Key Points

Addressing a joint press conference in national capital on impact of rate rationalisation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Union Minister said despite all these uncertainties, export has grown by about six per cent or seven per cent overall, "and even in merchandise, we have seen a good story of India in the first six months."

"There is resilience, there is confidence, there is demand for our goods and services across the world, and India will continue on this growth trajectory," the Union Minister said.

According to the official data released on October 15, India's merchandise export in September was up 6.75 per cent at USD 36.38 billion compared to USD 34.08 billion on a year-on-year (YoY) basis.

However, merchandise imports increased by 16.7 per cent to USD 68.53 billion, compared to USD 58.74 billion on a year-over-year basis, according to the data.

On a monthly basis, with the estimated services data, India's trade deficit (merchandise and services combined) widened to USD 16.61 billion in September 2025, compared to USD 8.60 billion in the same month last year.

On the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) negotiations, Goyal said that talks are going on with the US in a cordial environment. The United States has imposed 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods.

Speaking at the same press conference, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman clarified that the GST reforms were brought not because of the tariff wars but to ease the common people. "This has been in the works for one-and-a-half years. Who had thought of any tariff war at that time, and several groups of ministers were working on this for one-and-a-half years, and several groups of these GOMs met again, post the Government of India's package, which was sent to the GST Council So these are discussed at various levels at various times. So nowhere close to the tariff war. This had to happen. This was waiting to happen for quite some time. It has happened now."

- ANI