New Delhi. After agreeing on the India-US trade deal, America released a fact sheet on Tuesday stating the main terms of the agreement. Now just a day later the White House has taken a U-turn. The White House has secretly changed the key terms of the agreement. The special thing is that the things written in the new conditions are in favor of India. The words have also been manipulated. The most important part of the agreement that India is ‘committed’ to purchasing products worth more than Rs 500 billion from America, has been changed to ‘India intends’ to purchase American products worth this value.
According to media reports, the revised document issued by the US states that India will eliminate or reduce tariffs on all American industrial goods and a wide range of American food and agricultural products, including dried distillers grains, red sorghum, tree nuts, fresh and processed fruits, soybean oil, wine and spirits and other products. It further said that India intends to buy more American products and purchase more than $500 billion of American energy, information and communication technology, coal and other products. Earlier, instead of the word ‘intention’, ‘is committed’ was written.
Apart from this, the White House has also made an important change. In the revised document released on the agreement, the mention of pulses has been removed from the list of American products on which India had asked to eliminate or reduce tariffs. The word agricultural has also been removed from the list of product categories in the fact sheet. Let us tell you that in the fact sheet released on Tuesday, it was said that India will eliminate or reduce tariffs on all American industrial products and a variety of American food items and agricultural products, which include dried distillers grains, red sorghum, tree nuts, fresh and processed fruits, some pulses, soybean oil, wine and spirits, and other products. However, in the changes made today, the mention of some pulses has been removed from this list.
In another change from the original fact sheet, it was written that India will remove its digital services tax and is committed to negotiating stronger bilateral digital trade rules that eliminate discriminatory practices and other barriers to digital trade. However, the new fact sheet does not state that India will remove its digital services tax. Instead it said India has promised to negotiate stronger bilateral digital trade rules.