White House quietly revises India-US trade deal fact sheet, drops ‘certain pulses’; tones down statement on purchase of US products worth $500 billion from India ‘commits’ to ‘intends’

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge described the pact as a “PR-wrapped betrayal” and questioned whether it protected India’s economic and strategic interests. He pointed out that the White House fact sheet mentioned conditions not included in the Indo-US Joint Statement issued days earlier.

The original fact sheet released early Tuesday (IST), titled ‘The United States and India Announce Historic Trade Deal (Interim Agreement)’, stated: “India will 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, and additional products.”

The reference to “certain pulses” was not part of the joint statement released on February 7 about the interim trade agreement framework.

The revised fact sheet states: “India will 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, soybean oil, wine and spirits, and additional products.”

The original fact sheet stated that India “commits” to buying more than $500 billion worth of US products. It has been changed to state: “India intends to buy more American products and purchase over $500 billion of U.S. energy, information and communication technology, coal, and other products.”

There are other changes, too.

The original fact sheet had said that India would purchase US energy, information and communication technology, “agricultural”, coal, and other products. The word “agriculture” has been dropped in the revised fact sheet.

The original fact sheet said, “India will remove its digital services taxes and committed to negotiate a robust set of bilateral digital trade rules that address discriminatory or burdensome practices and other barriers to digital trade, including rules that prohibit the imposition of customs duties on electronic transmissions.”

The revised version has removed most of this paragraph to state instead that India has “committed to negotiate a robust set of bilateral digital trade rules”.