India to scale back import responsibility upto zero on choose US farm items – Company Technique & Outlook

The duty-free or decreased tariff import of US farm merchandise was introduced two days after Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan assured Parliament on February 5 that India’s staple grains, fruits, main crops, millets, and dairy merchandise are safe and face no threats.
| Photograph Credit score:
iStockphoto

India will remove or scale back tariffs on all US industrial items and a variety of US meals and agricultural merchandise, together with dried distillers’ grains (DDGs), crimson sorghum for animal feed, tree nuts, contemporary and processed fruit, soybean oil, wine and spirits, and extra merchandise, in response to the joint assertion issued by the US and India. Nonetheless, there is no such thing as a readability on whether or not the US determination to scale back its import tariff to 18 per cent can be relevant to Indian shrimp and Basmati rice, amongst different farm items.

The assertion relating to the duty-free or at decreased tariff import of US farm merchandise got here two days after Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan asserted in Parliament on February 5 that India’s staple grains, fruits, main crops, millets and dairy merchandise stay utterly safe and face no menace in any respect.

businessline was the primary to report on March 5 final yr a few doubtless concession to the US on permitting soya oil at zero responsibility amongst different farm merchandise.

India has already been importing soyabean oil from the US, together with Brazil, Argentina and Russia through which the efficient import responsibility is 27.5 per cent on crude varieties and 35.75 per cent on refined oil. Nonetheless, the share of imports from the US in your complete imported soya oil could be very negligible. The US just isn’t an enormous exporter of soya oil because it has big home consumption, each for meals processing and biodiesel programme, limiting the excess. Nevertheless it exports loads of soyabean, that are genetically modified and never allowed in India.

In line with the joint assertion, the US “will apply a reciprocal tariff price of 18 per cent” on originating items of India, together with textile and attire, leather-based and footwear, plastic and rubber, natural chemical substances, residence décor, artisanal merchandise, and sure equipment, “topic to the profitable conclusion of the Interim Settlement”. There isn’t a point out about “agricultural merchandise” within the checklist of things through which US would cut back responsibility.

Printed on February 7, 2026