'We intend to, don't have to': Piyush Goyal breaks down $500 billion US import plan

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has denied suggestions that India is under an obligation to import $500 billion worth of goods from the United States under the new India–US trade framework. He said the commitment is based on commercial intent, not compulsion.

“We don’t have to buy. We intend to,” Goyal responded in an interview with news agency ANI when asked whether India would have to buy $100 billion a year for five years. He elaborated that there was “no such limitation” and said the numbers reflect India’s growing import requirements in sectors where the US has capacity to supply competitively.

“There’s no such limitation. We estimate that the requirements that we have for import of certain items where the United States has the ability to sell to us things like crude oil, LNG, LPG, airplanes, their engines, their spare parts, and cooking coal.”

Goyal pointed to India’s expanding steel capacity as a major driver of future imports. “We have 140 million tons of steel capacity. We’re going to increase that to 300 million tons. Our current cooking coal requirement for steel is already $17 billion. That’ll become probably $30 billion. $30-35 billion a year will be required only for cooking coal. If we have one or two more countries supplying that, we get a better deal, we can negotiate smarter and better.”

The commerce minister also referred to existing aircraft orders and future aviation needs. He said India has already given orders to Boeing for planes worth $50 billion, plus orders for engines and spare parts. “I suspect we’ll need anywhere between $80-$100 billion of just civil aviation-related products.”

Energy is another area he listed that India may import from the US. “We continue to buy a lot of energy needs from all over the world, and that grows every year 8-10%. Now we will require large quantities,” he said. 

Goyal linked future imports to India’s push into digital infrastructure and emerging technologies. “We are setting up data centers. We are developing the AI and quantum computing economy in a big way. All of these will require huge amounts of ICD products. When we estimate these products, currently as we speak, we’re already importing $300 billion a year of these products from different parts of the world.”

“In the next 5 years, we estimate we will need $2 trillion of these products where America has very good capabilities and capacity to support the Indian economy with high quality at competitive prices. So, we hope they will offer us very competitive prices. We intend to purchase a good volume of these products out of our $2 trillion imports. India intends to purchase.”

Last Monday, US President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that, effective immediately, the US would lower its reciprocal tariff on India from 25 per cent to 18 per cent under the trade deal. He also said India would move forward to reduce tariffs and non-tariff barriers against the United States to “zero”.

“The Prime Minister also committed to ‘BUY AMERICAN’, at a much higher level, in addition to over $500 BILLION DOLLARS of US Energy, Technology, Agricultural, Coal, and many other products,” Trump wrote.

Opposition leaders criticised the government, alleging that India had conceded to US pressure and agreed to double imports. The Government, however, clarified that the $500 billion figure is spread over five years, implying about $100 billion annually.

India’s joint statement on the framework clearly states that New Delhi “intends to purchase $500 billion of U.S. energy products, aircraft and aircraft parts, precious metals, technology products, and coking coal over the next 5 years. India and the United States will significantly increase trade in technology products, including Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and other goods used in data centers, and expand joint technology cooperation.”