Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said India hopes to ‘conclude positively’ the first tranche of the bilateral trade agreement (BTA) with the US by fall this year, indicating progress on talks to bring down tariffs. Sitharaman, who commenced her six-day US trip from San Francisco, is scheduled to meet US treasury secretary Scott Bessent, besides attending the World Bank-IMF and G20 meetings. Since coming to power in January, President Donald Trump has aggressively used tariffs to balance US trade with the world by seeking greater access to American goods in world markets.