India’s sensitive sectors like agriculture and dairy are completely protected in the trade deal with the US, commerce minister Piyush Goyal told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, hours after the White House said Delhi had agreed to “no longer” buy Russian oil and investments of $500 billion across key American sectors.
Gotyal said that the US tariffs for Indian goods will be reduced to 18 per cent from 50 per cent, and pointed out that it is among the lowest when compared to competitor nations.
“Considering the important and diverse interests of both sides, it is natural that each side seeks to protect the critical and sensitive sectors of its own economy while ensuring the best possible outcome. During these negotiations, the Indian side has successfully ensured the protection of the interests of sensitive sectors, especially agriculture and the dairy sector," Goyal said.
"....since PM Narendra Modi ji's visit to the United States in February 2025, India and the United States have been holding regular discussions with the objective of concluding a balanced and mutually beneficial bilateral trade agreement. Keeping this in mind, negotiators from both sides have held in-depth discussions on various issues over the past year,” he said, prefacing the dairy and agriculture announcements.
Goyal’s statement comes against the backdrop of a Bloomberg report detailing how India sent national security advisor Ajit Doval to Washington in September 2025 to rescue US-India ties that had nosedived with Trump calling India a dead economy and Prime Minister Narenendra Modi meeting China’s XI Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
According to the Bloomberg report, which quotes unnamed Indian officials, “Doval told Rubio that India wouldn’t be bullied by US President Donald Trump and his top aides, the people said, and would be willing to wait out his term, having faced other hostile US administrations in the past.”
The national security advisor said Delhi wanted Team Trump to stop their public criticisms of India, according to Bloomberg.
Shortly after that, the thaw in frosty ties was achieved with Trump calling Modi on his birthday.
“By the end of the year, the two leaders had spoken four more times on the phone as they inched toward a deal to bring down the tariffs,” the Bloomberg report said.
US Ambassador Sergio Gor’s coming to Delhi helped things further with his assertion of Washington and Delhi being “real friends” and invitation to join the Pax Silica alliance on supply chains.
Gor and external affairs minister S. Jaishankar’s meeting last week was the clincher, per the report.
Commerce minister Goyal told the Lok Sabha that the deal with the US will help promote initiatives like Make in India and Design in India and will make India self-reliant, he said.
He added that labour-intensive sectors would get a major boost in exports after the reduction in the tariffs to 18 per cent and that the deal would open huge opportunities for skilled Indians and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
He informed that both sides are working to complete the technical processes, and soon it will be announced.
Ensuring energy security for Indians are top priority of the government, Goyal said, adding India needs goods from sectors like aviation and nuclear, and the US is a major player in these segments.
The deal is in the national interest of India, he underlined.
