Top News

New Delhi. Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, while presenting the government’s stand on the announcement of the outline of the India-US interim trade agreement in a press conference held here on Saturday, said that it is expected to be signed by mid-March.

He said Indian agricultural products will be exported to the US at zero tariff, while US agricultural products are not given any tariff exemption in India. Addressing reporters, Goyal made it clear that in this agreement, genetically modified (GM) food has not been allowed to enter India.

He said that this agreement will open a market worth 30 trillion dollars (about Rs 27.18 lakh crore) for Indian exporters. Under the agreement, India has agreed to buy products worth 50 thousand crore dollars (45 lakh 30 thousand crore rupees) from America in the next five years.

The Commerce and Industry Minister said that India has given quota-based duty concession on apples to the US under the interim trade agreement, while the interests of domestic apple growers have been completely protected.

Under the proposed India-US trade agreement, India has imposed a minimum import price (MIP) of Rs 80 per kg and 25 per cent import duty on apples coming from the US. This effectively means that apples priced below Rs 100 per kg cannot be imported from the US.

Goyal said, “There are some people in the country who are against the interests of farmers. They mislead the people of the country. They are surprised to see that no such step has been taken in the India-US trade agreement which is against the interests of the farmers of the country.”

The Union Commerce Minister said that under this agreement, the 50 percent tariff on Indian exports to America will be reduced to only 18 percent.

He said that the 18 per cent duty is lower than the tariffs imposed by all our neighboring countries and other countries with which we compete and this will be of great benefit to us and our exporters in the coming days. There are many such items on which now when our exporters send goods to America, there will be zero duty.

It is noteworthy that India and America released the outline of the Interim Trade Agreement (ITA) on Friday. Under this, America’s tax on Indian goods has been reduced from 50 percent to 18 percent, which also includes the 25 percent additional tax imposed on India for buying oil from Russia.