Explained: US tones down both factsheet and joint statement on trade deal — how this affects India

India US trade deal explained: The US on Wednesday revised a factsheet it had released on February 9 about the trade deal with India, softening its claims about the gains it had secured from New Delhi and entirely dropping a section on digital services taxes. It also made one change to the India-US joint statement of February 6, replacing the word “committed” with “intends” to reflect the non-binding nature of the provision. The earlier version of the factsheet said India had “committed to” buying more American products and purchasing “over $500 billion of U.S. energy, information and communication technology, coal, and other products”. The updated factsheet, as well as the joint statement, tempered the wording from “committed” to “intends”. Another section in the factsheet included “certain pulses” among the agricultural products India had committed to reducing tariffs on. The joint statement, to be clear, had made no mention of pulses. The updated factsheet drops the mention of pulses. It now reads: “India will eliminate or reduce tariffs on all U.S. industrial goods and a wide range of U.S. 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,” the updated factsheet read. The section on digital services taxes said: “India will remove its digital services taxes and commit to negotiate a robust set of bilateral digital trade rules that address discriminatory or burdensome practices and other barriers to digital trade, including rules that prohibit the imposition of customs duties on electronic transmissions.” This section, which has now been removed altogether, did not feature in the India-US joint statement. The sections in the factsheet and joint statement that have been modified had sparked criticism from Opposition parties and farmers in India. Here’s a deep dive into the revisions the White House has made. ## Farmers protest over market access to agriculture The US has removed the term “certain pulses” from among the items India had “committed” to purchasing. While “pulses” were not mentioned in the joint statement, Commerce Ministry sources have said that market access to pulses is indeed part of the deal. The extent is not clear yet. As per the latest data, India’s pulses imports in the first nine months of 2025-26 stood at $2.53 billion, down 33% from the same period last year. In all of 2024-25, India’s pulses imports from the entire world rose 46% to $5.48 billion. The US, however, was a minor source of India’s pulses imports at just $90 million. India imports about a fifth of its yearly consumption of pulses to meet domestic demand, with key countries from where these importers are secured being Canada, Russia, Brazil, Myanmar, and African nations like Mozambique and Malawi. The dropping of ‘pulses’ from the revised fact sheet comes at a time when the Indian government is attempting to push for self-reliance in the segment. Just last week, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, said that importing pulses was a “matter of shame for us” and that India will become an exporter of the same. While noting that the area under pulses is declining, Chouhan had said this needs to increase and that emphasis is being put on raising both productivity and profitability of pulse crops. For India, market access to agriculture has long been a sensitive point in trade deal negotiations. Farmers have historically pushed for agriculture to be kept out of multilateral and bilateral agreements, citing steep international subsidies in the West. Following the trade deal announcement, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, which represents several farmer groups, announced a nationwide general strike on February 12. Another farm group, the Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh, said that the trade agreement was negotiated in secrecy and its terms were not disclosed. Only vague statements were issued as full disclosure could be politically damaging, the Mahasangh claimed. While a section of Indian farmers have said the access for dried distillers’ grains (DDGs) could prove helpful, some see it as a backdoor entry of genetically modified (GM) products in the country, as DDGs are derived from GM items. Farmer unions also fear that control over India’s animal feed market could be monopolised by US corporations. Purchasing American goods worth $500 billion In FY 2024-25, India imported $45.62 billion in American goods and exported $86.51 billion of shipments to the world’s largest economy. The US fact sheet earlier claimed that India had “committed” to massively ramp up these purchases to $500 billion in five years, or $100 billion annually. On Wednesday, the fact sheet replaced the word “committed” with “intends”. The $500-billion sum has left farmers worried over a sudden surge in imports of agricultural goods that has also begun affecting market rates of key agricultural goods. However, government officials have clarified that this figure is not legally binding as private companies are involved in placing orders, not the sovereign governments. Similar phrasing has been used in trade deals in the past. For instance, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) under the India-EFTA agreement committed to investing $100 billion in India over 15 years. India is expected to purchase $100 billion worth of American products annually for five years, which would largely include aircraft, technology items, precious metals, oil, nuclear products and agricultural goods. Pushback on digital services taxes The elimination of the section on India committing to remove digital services taxes comes amid worries that New Delhi has agreed to refrain from imposing “equalisation levy-style” taxes on American technology companies in the future, as India had already removed the tax during the Budget presentation last year. An equalisation levy is a measure to ‘equalise’ the tax treatment of resident and non-resident e-commerce companies. On July 8 last year, The Indian Express had reported that legal advisers to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry had suggested that Indian negotiators should not accept Washington’s proposal that prohibits India from reintroducing such taxes, popularly known as the “Google tax”. Experts said the US has been forcing trade partners into accepting steep conditions that restrict them from imposing regulations mandating data localisation. However, India should not give up data sovereignty under a trade pact, they said. Data localisation is the legal practice of storing and processing personal or critical data on servers physically located within the borders of the country where that data was generated. UN Trade and Development in a 2018 report had pointed out the benefits of data localisation, including encouraging foreign investment in domestic digital infrastructure, enabling enforcement of national laws, and safeguarding privacy and cyber sovereignty. Notably, India has a significant advantage due to its vast user base and data potential, and experts point out that the success of any digital product depends on its user base and with the help of robust regulation, India could replicate global digital products Ravi Dutta Mishra is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, specializing in economic policy and financial regulations. With over five years of experience in business journalism, he provides critical coverage of the frameworks that govern India's commercial landscape. Expertise & Focus Areas: Mishra’s reporting concentrates on the intersection of government policy and market operations. His core beats include: Trade & Commerce: Analysis of India's import-export trends, trade agreements, and commercial policies. Banking & Finance: Covering regulatory changes and policy decisions affecting the banking sector. Professional Experience: Prior to joining The Indian Express, Mishra built a robust portfolio working with some of India's leading financial news organizations. His background includes tenures at: Mint CNBC-TV18 This diverse experience across both print and broadcast media has equipped him with a holistic understanding of financial storytelling and news cycles. Find all stories by Ravi Dutta Mishra here ... Read More