US Drops ‘Pulses’ From Trade Fact Sheet

New Delhi/Washington: The White House has removed a reference to “pulses” from a list of US products on which India would eliminate or reduce tariffs, in a revised fact sheet on the interim trade agreement, according to reports from Washington.

An initial fact sheet titled ‘The United States and India Announce Historic Trade Deal (Interim Agreement)’ was issued on Tuesday (IST), days after the two countries announced a framework for a reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade agreement. The earlier version stated that India would eliminate or reduce tariffs on all US industrial goods and a range of agricultural products, including dried distillers’ grains, red sorghum, tree nuts, fresh and processed fruit, “certain pulses”, soybean oil, wine and spirits.

It also said that India had “committed” to purchase over $500 billion worth of US energy, information and communication technology, agricultural, coal and other products.

However, in a revised version issued on Wednesday (IST), the reference to pulses was removed and the term “committed” was replaced with “intends”.

“India will eliminate or significantly reduce tariffs on all US industrial goods and a broad range of American agricultural products, including dried distillers’ grains (DDGs), red sorghum, tree nuts, fresh and processed fruits, soybean oil, wine and spirits, among others. In addition, India plans to scale up imports of US goods, committing to purchase over $500 billion worth of American energy, information and communication technology products, coal and other commodities,” the revised fact sheet stated.

The joint statement issued last week on the trade framework did not mention pulses among items eligible for tariff reduction. It stated that “India intends to purchase $500 billion of US energy products, aircraft and aircraft parts, precious metals, technology products, and coking coal over the next 5 years”.