Will be easy to purchase goods valued much more than $500 billion from U.S.: Goyal

India aims to purchase $500 billion in goods from the U.S. over five years, boosting trade and economic growth.

India will have no difficulty in purchasing goods worth $500 billion from the U.S. over the next five years, as envisaged under the bilateral trade pact, and in fact, this is an “extremely” conservative number for a country which aspires to become a $30 trillion economy, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said on Sunday.

“My sense is we need at least a 100 billion dollar plus only for the aviation sector, in addition to oil, LNG, LPG, and crude oil,” Mr. Goyal said in an interview with PTI Videos.

According to a joint statement issued by both sides on Saturday on the framework for the first phase of the bilateral trade agreement, India has expressed its intention to purchase $500 billion of U.S. energy products, aircraft and aircraft parts, precious metals, technology products and coking coal over the next five years.

The Commerce and Industry Minister said that Indian goods facing 18% tariffs will still have a competitive advantage in U.S. markets compared to products from China and other competitor countries, which face higher levies. China has been slapped with 35% tariffs, and other countries in Asia face 19% and up.

At present, he said, India could source imports worth about $300 billion from the U.S. that it currently buys from other countries.

“We are even today importing 300 billion dollars of goods that can be imported from the U.S. We are importing from all over the world. That is going to grow up to two trillion in the next five years...I told my counterparts that look, I can assure you that there is demand in India, but you have to be competitive,” he said.