White House drops reference to 'certain pulses' in revised fact sheet on trade deal with India

The White House has removed “pulses” from a list of American products on which it said India will eliminate or reduce tariffs, in a revised fact sheet issued on the interim trade deal.

On Monday, the White House had issued a fact sheet on ‘The United States and India Announce Historic Trade Deal (Interim Agreement),’ days after India and the US announced in a joint statement the framework for an Interim Agreement regarding reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade.

An initial version of the fact sheet had highlighted key terms of the agreement, including that 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, red sorghum, tree nuts, fresh and processed fruit, “certain pulses”, soybean oil, wine and spirits, and additional products.

The fact sheet had also said that India committed to buy more American products and purchase over USD 500 billion of US energy, information and communication technology, agricultural, coal, and other products.

The revised fact sheet issued on Tuesday removed the reference regarding pulses and changed the word “committed” used for India to “intends.”

“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.

“India intends to buy more American products and purchase over $500 billion of US energy, information and communication technology, coal, and other products,” the revised fact sheet said.

The joint statement issued last week on the trade deal had made no mention of “pulses” in items on which India will eliminate or reduce tariffs for American products.

The joint statement had also maintained that “India intends to purchase $500 billion of US energy products, aircraft and aircraft parts, precious metals, technology products, and coking coal over the next five years.”