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News Topical, Digital Desk : Next week, an important round of talks will begin between India and America regarding the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA). The issue of purchasing energy products from America will be important in the talks to be held in Washington. This will include crude oil as well as gas.
If all goes well, India will buy petroleum products worth $25 billion from the US in 2025, more than double the purchase of $10 billion in 2024.
What can India do to reduce the trade deficit?
Purchase of petroleum products alone would be enough to cover a large portion of the $41 billion trade deficit (in India's favour) between India and the US.
President Donald Trump has two major complaints with India. He believes that India imposes too high tariffs on American products and secondly the trade deficit is in India's favour. India will try to import petroleum products to reduce the trade deficit.
Data for February-March, 2025 shows that the US has now become the fifth largest supplier of oil to India. On the other hand, state-owned petroleum company GAIL Limited has said that it wants to enter into an LNG supply agreement with the US for 15 years.
The company's Director (Business Development) Rajiv Kumar Singhal says that if everything goes well, American LNG will start arriving from 2029-30. GAIL Chairman and Managing Director Sandeep Kumar Gupta says that gas consumption in India is growing at an annual rate of seven to eight percent and to supply it, we will have to buy gas from many sources.
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