In the trade deal with the US, India is believed to have not agreed to allow the controversial genetically-modified soybean and maize, while there may be parity of duty on other farm products as agreed with the European Union.
Along with the Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal’s assertion on no compromise on sensitive sectors, businessline has reliably learnt that the redline on GM soya and maize has not been crossed.
US President Donald Trump has listed a host of areas, including agriculture, and said India will increase its buying from the US. On Tuesday, US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, in a post on X, said: “New US-India deal will export more American farm products to India’s massive market, lifting prices and pumping cash into rural America.” India’s growing population is an “important market” for American agricultural products, and the deal will go a long way to reducing this deficit, which was $1.3 billion in 2024, she added.
However, officials said this will not be an area where India can compromise. India has already been importing soybean oil from the US, along with Brazil, Argentina and Russia, in which the effective import duty is 27.5 per cent on crude variety and 35.75 per cent on refined oil. However, the share of import from US in entire imported soy oil is very negligible.
Soybean exports
The US is not a big exporter of soy oil, while it exports a lot of soybean, which is genetically modified (GM) and not allowed in India. Though India offered to reduce duty on soy oil, the US was insisting on allowing GM soyabean and also GM corn.
Importers of fresh fruits are expecting India to allow fresh apples from the US at either zero duty, or with 25 per cent duty for a quantity up to 1 lakh tonnes. Similarly, dry fruits importers are expecting import at zero duty, with a quantitative limit for some dry nuts such as pista, hazelnut, which are either not produced or grown in very insignificant quantity in India.
Published on February 3, 2026
