A day after the White House released a fact sheet on the interim India-US trade framework, it has now made notable changes to both commodity references and the strength of language used to describe India’s
proposed purchases of American goods, edits that differ from the version released earlier.
In the latest iteration of the document, the White House has altered two key elements.
First, the reference to “pulses” in the list of US agricultural products that India would eliminate or reduce tariffs on was removed in one update, before being reinserted later in a narrower form as “certain pulses.”
Second, the phrasing around India’s large-scale procurement of American products was softened in an intermediate revision, shifting from “has committed to buy” to “intends to buy” more than USD 500 billion worth of US goods across sectors such as energy, information and communication technology, agriculture and coal.
HOW THE FACT SHEET WAS FRAMED EARLIER
The White House has described the interim deal as a stepping stone toward a full Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), saying that in the coming weeks both sides would work toward finalising the arrangement while continuing negotiations on services, investment, labour and government procurement.
The Fact Sheet, titled “The United States and India Announce Historic Trade Deal (Interim Agreement)”, earlier mentioned that India would eliminate or reduce tariffs on all US industrial goods and on a wide range of agricultural products, including dried distillers’ grains, red sorghum, tree nuts, fresh and processed fruit, soybean oil, wine and spirits, and pulses.
It further asserted that India “has committed to buy more American products and purchase over USD 500 billion” in US energy, technology, agricultural, coal and other items.
