New Delhi is also willing to place orders for Boeing planes worth up to $80 billion. India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has reportedly indicated that New Delhi is ready to expand trade with the U.S.
India’s demand for aircraft, with orders for Boeing “yet to be placed but ready,” is about $80 billion, Goyal stated on Thursday, citing that if engines and other spare parts are added, imports from U.S. will “cross 100 billion dollars just [from] aircrafts.”
The families of the victims who perished in the Air India airplane crash in Ahmedabad in June last year are suing Boeing, alleging that the defect in the dual switches led to the disaster in which 241 of 242, the minister said, were on board the Air India plane.
The minister further added that he had the possibility of acquiring at least $500 billion of U.S. goods within a span of five years, but he emphasized that there was no pledge of investment commitment as part of the trade agreement with Washington.
An announcement of a trade agreement came on Monday, a week after the India-EU trade agreement, when U.S. President Donald Trump posted on social media that Washington and New Delhi had agreed on a trade deal.
Trump stated that the U.S. will impose tariffs on Indian products at 18 percent, and New Delhi will impose no tariffs on U.S. products, will substitute Russian oil with American and Venezuelan oil, will purchase American goods to the value of $500 billion, and open its sensitive sectors to American goods, including agriculture.
The Indian Prime Minister was happy with the reduction in duties, as goods in the country entering the U.S. from India have been charged half the tariffs, but he did not comment on any other fact that was presented by Trump.
Although analysts believe India will purchase more of what the U.S. offers, they have objected that the goal of purchasing goods amounting to $500 billion in Washington “seems a stretch.”
India’s overall goods imports remained at $720.24 billion in the financial year 2025, with its trade deficit at $94.3 billion. That includes goods worth $45.3 billion from the U.S.
Goyal said on Thursday that the first tranche of the trade agreement between India and the U.S. will be concluded within the coming 3-4 days, with India and the U.S. signing a joint statement. He added that the 18 percent tariffs on Indian products sold to the U.S will be effective upon issuance of the joint statement.
However, in mid-March, the two sides will sign a formal agreement, and the tariff concession of U.S. goods into India will then be effective. The Indian government has been sparse with information since the announcement of the deal and is under scrutiny by opposition political parties.
The leader of India’s opposition, Rahul Gandhi, has accused Modi of being “compromised” and of having “surrendered on Tariffs. The Indian government has not validated some of the assertions made by Trump regarding the trade agreement, like India cutting down the duty on U.S. products to zero, stopping the importation of Russian oil, and the firm commitment to buy goods valued at $500 billion.
Experts reported that Trump’s claims seem “unrealistic” and risk the U.S. backtracking on the trade agreement, adding that his threats to increase tariffs on South Korea, after reducing them in July last year, are amid a trade deal.
