New Delhi: The Indian team led by chief negotiator Rajesh Agrawal on Sunday returned home as the discussions with American officials concluded. Top officials in both India and the United States discussed the existing tariff issues to protect their country’s interest and ended it smoothly as ‘no major differences’ emerged between them, a top commerce ministry’s source said.
The source further said that India discussed a variety of issues related to the US tariff and its impact on India’s agriculture sector, small businesses and farmers among others. As far as the issue of oil purchase from India is concerned, India is committed to buy Russian oil and will continue it in future as well,” the source said.
“Though we have stuck to our decision to buy Russian oil, oil import from the US is not ruled out. We are trying to balance it in some way or the other. Our concerned officials are regularly in touch with both the countries,” the source added. On overall trade, the US is India’s biggest partner and it is trying to significantly bring down the hefty US tariff of 50 per cent imposed on India by November this year. “Discussions between India and the United States on the proposed bilateral trade agreement are progressing in a “cordial atmosphere,” stressing that New Delhi will safeguard the interests of farmers, fishermen and the MSME sector,” commerce minister Piyush Goyal had said on Friday.
The commerce ministry, however, indicated that while India is still doing better in exports to the US compared to the previous year, there are parts of supply chains fighting challenges to trade. “Despite high tariffs, India’s exports to the US grew 13.3 per cent in the first half of the year, reflecting resilience amid global trade challenges,” the ministry recently noted.
“India would like to diversify its energy import portfolio, subject to availability at the right price, stating that India can import more crude oil and natural gas worth $12-$13 billion from the US without altering configuration of refineries,” the ministry said.
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