WASHINGTON, Feb 8 — United States (US) President Donald Trump scrapped a punitive tariff on India that he had introduced to indirectly weaken Russia’s oil trade, as India agreed to buy US goods worth US$500 billion (RM1.97 trillion).
The German Press Agency (dpa) reported that Washington and New Delhi published the framework for a preliminary trade agreement that reduces additional US import duties on Indian goods from 25 per cent to 18 per cent.
The 25 per cent rate, introduced in August, was no longer being applied as of Saturday.
In a joint statement, both sides said this would benefit both sides. India will eliminate or reduce “tariffs on all US industrial goods and a wide range of US food and agricultural products”.
It also plans to buy US goods worth US$500 billion over the next five years, including energy products, aircraft, and aircraft parts.
Trade Minister Piyush Goyal defended the agreement against opposition criticism that the US would benefit more from it.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) yesterday, he said that the interim agreement will open up a US$30 trillion (RM118.3 trillion) market for Indian exporters and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
Alongside reducing US tariffs to 18 per cent, tariffs on goods such as generic drugs, gemstones, and aircraft parts will be set at zero.
Trump signed an executive order on Friday that the 25 per cent tariff on goods imported from India into the US would no longer be levied.
The US had introduced punitive tariffs against Russia’s trading partners to reduce oil revenues used by Russian President Vladimir Putin to finance Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched in 2022.
