Datanomics: Corn symbolises thorny issues in US-India trade talks

India's corn imports from the US were just $ three million in FY18, accounting for 0.3 per cent of total agricultural imports from that country

India’s resistance to significantly increase the import of US corn has been one of the friction points in the ongoing trade talks. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick recently said that India has 1.4 billion people but it “does not import a single bushel of corn from the US”. However, corn accounts for less than 1 per cent of India’s overall agricultural & allied imports. And India imports only a minuscule share of corn from the US. In fact, between FY18 and FY25, India’s annual corn imports from the US averaged just about $ two million. The reasons: higher import tariffs