The US Ambassador remarked that India has been diversifying imports of crude oil, and for this purpose the Energy Departments of India and US are in close discussion with each other over India buying Venezuelan oil.
The remarks indicated that the India-US trade agreement is yet to address some aspects of the deal.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is going to visit India very soon, Gor said. He, however, declined to comment on talks between President Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.India and US announced agreement on a trade deal on February 2. According to the pact, the reciprocal tariffs on India goods will reduce from 25% to 18%.
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US President Trump had imposed 25% additional tariffs on India, citing purchase of Russian oil, alleging that India’s oil imports were helping Russia fuel its war with Ukraine. This had taken the total US tariffs on India at 50%.
Both the countries had a number of rounds of negotiations to resolve the “sticky” issues including the dairy and agriculture sectors. The US wants India to open its agriculture and dairy sectors, however, India has maintained that it would protect its indigenous farmers and dairymen in any trade deal with any country.
The US-India interim trade agreement also came into a lot of fire when the US had claimed that India had agreed to open the sectors for US products.
