The White House has issued an updated factsheet on the India-US trade framework, a day after its initial release, moderating several key claims regarding India’s obligations on product purchases, tariffs, and digital trade. This revision follows the recent announcement of an interim reciprocal trade agreement, aimed at strengthening bilateral commerce, which was finalized after a phone conversation between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump.
In the initial factsheet, the US stated that India “committed to buy more American products, including over USD 500 billion of energy, information and communication technology, agricultural, coal, and other goods.” The updated version now uses the term “intends” instead of “committed” and removes references to agricultural products from the list.
Significant adjustments were also made in the tariff section. The earlier document suggested India would “eliminate or reduce tariffs on all US industrial goods and a wide range of US food and agricultural products, including dried distillers’ grains (DDGs), red sorghum, tree nuts, fresh and processed fruit, certain pulses, soybean oil, wine and spirits.” The revised factsheet omits “certain pulses” from the list.
On digital trade, the original factsheet claimed India “will remove its digital services taxes” and pledged to negotiate comprehensive bilateral digital trade rules. The new version drops the commitment to remove digital taxes, retaining only India’s pledge to negotiate robust digital trade rules.
Under the proposed arrangement, the US plans to lower tariffs on Indian goods to 18 percent from the existing 50 percent. Additionally, President Trump has lifted the 25 percent tariffs imposed last August on Indian imports of Russian oil, citing India’s commitment to halt direct or indirect purchases of Moscow’s oil and acknowledging the “significant steps” taken by New Delhi in this regard.
This revised framework signals a continued effort to balance expectations on both sides while promoting trade growth, strategic cooperation, and stronger economic ties between India and the United States.
