‘Plenty of unknowns in US-India trade deal’

NEW DELHI: The India-US trade deal goes some way to alleviate stress on Indian exports but there are “plenty of unknowns” and leaves questions unanswered, says an analysis by Moody’s Analytics, an arm of Moody’s.“The deal assumes that India will end its purchase of Russian oil, but there has been no confirmation from India,” said a report by Aditi Raman, associate economist and Denise Cheok, economist, at Moody’s Analytics.The report said India has agreed to phase out its imports of Russian crude oil and replace them with US and Venezuelan crude, according to US officials. It also said that Indian officials have not confirmed that statement, but major refineries have reduced purchases of Russian crude in recent months. India’s crude imports from Russia dropped 27% year-on-year in Sept and 34% in Oct.The US will cut its base tariff rate on goods from India to 18% from 50% under a new trade agreement. This brings down the effective tariff rate from an estimated 25% to around 15%, after key exemptions, said the report.It said India imports more than 30% of its domestic energy needs from Russia, so a pivot away from Russian crude will be pricey.