Industry Minister Piyush Goyal clarified on Thursday that no investment has been made by India in America. However, as India rapidly moves towards the goal of ‘Developed India 2047’, it will need a large amount of energy, data center equipment, ICT products and other goods from the US in the coming years.
How many goods will India import from America in the next five years?
Goyal said India’s steel capacity is planned to increase from the current 140 million tonnes to about 300 million tonnes in the next few years in line with India’s rapid economic growth during the Amrit period. Similarly, demand for energy and digital infrastructure will also increase rapidly. According to him, India can import goods worth about $500 billion from America in the next five years.
This statement has come at a time when US President Trump, while recently announcing a trade agreement, claimed that India has promised an investment of 500 billion dollars in America. Clarifying on this, Goyal said that this is not an investment commitment, but an assessment of possible sourcing and procurement.
Statistics of deals between India and America
He said that India’s existing and proposed aircraft purchase orders from America are around 70 to 80 billion dollars. Adding engines and spare parts, this cost could reach $100 billion. Apart from this, while mentioning the tax holiday given to data centers in the budget, he said that if there is an investment of 100 to 150 billion dollars in data centres, then the demand for the equipment required for them will also be on a large scale.
The aim of the agreement is to increase bilateral trade to 500 billion dollars by 2030.
Talking about the India-US bilateral trade agreement, Goyal said that this agreement, formally proposed in February 2025, aims to increase bilateral trade from the current $191 billion to $500 billion by 2030. For this, both the countries will have to increase efforts on both the export and sourcing fronts.
Goyal also informed that the first phase of BTA is almost ready and a joint statement is expected to be issued in the next four-five days. After this, the legal agreement can be signed by mid-March. Commerce Secretary Rajesh Aggarwal clarified that after the joint statement, there is a possibility of America reducing the tariff to 18 percent through an executive order. He said that in the US, tariffs are decided by executive order, whereas in India, MFN (Most Favored Nation) tariff reduction is possible only after a legal agreement.
It is noteworthy that the Trump administration had imposed strict tariffs on major exporting countries including India from August 2025, under which up to 50 percent duty was imposed on many products going from India to America. Now after recent talks between the leaders, there is a proposal to reduce them to 18 percent.
