$500 billion US imports extremely conservative, says Piyush Goyal
India will have no difficulty in purchasing goods worth $ 500 billion from the US over the next five years, as envisaged under the bilateral trade pact, and in fact, this is an “extremely” conservative number for a country which aspires to become a $30 trillion economy, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said on Sunday.
“My sense is we need at least a 100 billion dollar plus only for the aviation sector, in addition to oil, LNG, LPG, and crude oil,” Goyal said in an interview with PTI Videos.
According to a joint statement issued by both sides on Saturday on the framework for the first phase of the bilateral trade agreement, India has expressed its intention to purchase $500 billion of US energy products, aircraft and aircraft parts, precious metals, technology products and coking coal over the next five years. The Commerce and Industry Minister said that Indian goods facing 18 per cent tariffs will still have a competitive advantage in US markets compared to products from China and other competitor countries, which face higher levies. China has been slapped with 35 per cent tariffs, and other countries in Asia face 19 per cent and up.
At present, he said, India could source imports worth about $300 billion from the US that it currently buys from other countries.
“We are even today importing 300 billion dollars of goods that can be imported from the US. We are importing from all over the world. That is going to grow up to two trillion in the next five years...I told my counterparts that look, I can assure you that there is demand in India, but you have to be competitive,” he said.
Goyal said that as the country’s economy is growing at a faster pace, demand for a variety of goods ranging from semiconductor chips, high-end machinery and data centre equipment to aircraft, aircraft parts and energy goods is also increasing.He said at present, India is importing goods worth about $40-50 billion from the US every year.
