New Delhi, Feb 16 (IANS) While India has diversified its energy basket and started sourcing more oil and gas from the US, it is also diversifying its import basket for precious metals from the UAE so that it can purchase more gold and silver from the US market instead, a senior official said.

This will help to bring down prices and also the trade surplus with the US.

The United States is a major global hub for trading these precious metals. It exports significant amounts of gold (including waste/scrap) and silver, with recent data highlighting billions of dollars in trade, particularly to markets like Canada, India, and the UK. Exports consist of raw, refined, and jewellery forms.

India exports agri-products worth $2.8 billion to the US and imports worth $1.5 billion. As a result, India’s non-marine agricultural exports to the US are currently $1.3 billion in surplus.

The official said that any agri products that come into India will have to meet biosecurity concerns, and GM foods are not allowed into the country. Any imports of select agri-products from the US are also subject to Tariff Rate Quotas (TRQs), the official added.

The India-US interim trade agreement is poised to act as a significant catalyst for India’s data centre industry, driven by increased access to advanced technology, investment, and reduced operational costs.

The trade pact addresses high import duties (formerly 20–28 per cent) on enterprise GPU servers, which made setting up data centres in India much more expensive than in hubs like Singapore. Duty rationalisation is expected to reduce the cost of establishing GPU-ready data centres by approximately 14 per cent.

The finalisation of the interim India–US Bilateral Trade Agreement delivers comprehensive tariff rationalisation, zero-duty access across large product categories, enhanced digital and technology cooperation, and a carefully calibrated framework to safeguard India’s farmers, MSMEs and domestic industry, according to an official statement.

With India’s total exports to the United States standing at $86.35 billion in 2024, the agreement significantly enhances competitive access across key sectors, including textiles, leather, gems and jewellery, agriculture, machinery, home décor, pharmaceuticals, and technology-driven industries.

Under the agreement, tariffs on $30.94 billion worth of these exports have been reduced from 50 per cent to 18 per cent, while tariffs on another $10.03 billion have been reduced from 50 per cent to zero. This means a substantial share of Indian goods entering the U.S. market will now face either sharply lower tariffs or completely duty-free access, significantly improving price competitiveness.

–IANS

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