Rollback of 25% punitive tariff on India’s commitment to stop purchasing Russian oil, White House reiterates

The White House has said India and the US will finalise the interim agreement on trade with view to concluding a mutually beneficial Bilateral Trade Agreement in the coming weeks.

A White House Fact Sheet said that the two countries would also continue negotiations to address remaining issues, including services and investment, labour and government procurement.

The fact sheet, titled "The United States and India Announce Historic Trade Deal (Interim Agreement)", highlights key terms of the agreement, including India removing or reducing tariffs on all US industrial goods and a wide range of US food and agricultural products.

This includes dried distillers’ grains, red sorghum, tree nuts,and fresh and processed fruit, certain pulses, soybean oil, wine and spirits, and additional products.

Further, India has committed to buy more American products, purchasing $500 billion worth of US energy, information and communication technology, agricultural, coal, and other products.

On the ‘Prosperous Path Forward’, the fact sheet said US President Donald Trump continues to advance the interests of the American people, enhancing market access for American exporters and lowering tariff and non-tariff barriers to protect our economic and national security.

“India has maintained some of the highest tariffs on the United States of any major world economy, with tariffs as high as an average of 37 per cent for agricultural goods and more than 100 per cent on certain autos. India also has a history of imposing highly protectionist non-tariff barriers that have banned and prohibited many US exports to India,” the fact sheet said.

“In the coming weeks, the United States and India will promptly implement this framework and work toward finalising the Interim Agreement with a view to concluding a mutually beneficial BTA to lock in benefits for American workers and businesses,” it added.

The announcement provides a “tangible path forward” with India that underscores the President’s dedication to realising balanced, reciprocal trade with an important trading partner.

Further, it added that in line with the roadmap set out in the terms of reference for the BTA, the United States and India will “continue negotiations to address the remaining tariff barriers, additional non-tariff barriers, technical barriers to trade, customs and trade facilitation, good regulatory practices, trade remedies, services and investment, intellectual property, labour, environment, government procurement, and trade-distorting or unfair practices of state-owned enterprises.” It said India will address non-tariff barriers that affect bilateral trade in priority areas.

The United States and India will negotiate rules of origin that ensure that the agreed benefits accrue predominantly to the United States and India.

India will remove its digital services taxes and committed to negotiate a robust set of bilateral digital trade rules that address discriminatory or burdensome practices and other barriers to digital trade, including rules that prohibit the imposition of customs duties on electronic transmissions.

The United States and India committed to strengthening economic security alignment to enhance supply chain resilience and innovation through complementary actions to address non-market policies of third parties as well as cooperating on inbound and outbound investment reviews and export controls, it said adding that the two countries will significantly increase bilateral trade in technology products and expand joint technology cooperation.

It noted that last Friday, Trump announced the trade deal with India that will open up the country’s market of over 1.4 billion people to American products.

The joint statement follows a call between Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week, “in which the leaders reached a framework for an Interim Agreement on reciprocal trade and reaffirmed their commitment to broader US-India Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) negotiations.” It noted that Trump agreed to remove the additional 25 per cent tariff on imports from India in "recognition of India’s commitment to stop purchasing” Russian oil. Accordingly, the President signed an Executive Order last Friday removing that additional 25 per cent tariff.

“Given India’s willingness to align with the United States to confront systemic imbalances in the bilateral trade relationship and shared national security challenges, the United States will lower the Reciprocal Tariff on India from 25 per cent to 18 per cent."

(With PTI inputs)