India seeks critical minerals partnership agreement with US

New Delhi, Oct 19: Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday said India has proposed a critical minerals partnership agreement (CMPA) with the US, that will help domestic firms in the sector such as electric vehicles to get certain benefits in the American market.

The issue was raised by India during a recent visit of the minister to the US earlier this month.

During the visit, the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to enhance cooperation in critical mineral supply chain.

Critical minerals, such as cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel and rare earths, play a crucial role in the production of clean energy technologies, from wind turbines to electric cars. Such minerals are in demand for the production of batteries for electric cars.

“I have suggested that our critical minerals MoU should be converted to a critical minerals partnership agreement and become a beginning point to go towards a free trade agreement. But as we are all aware, the US Congress is not very enthusiastic about FTA with any country,” Goyal told reporters here.

Last year, the US and Japan signed a critical minerals agreement. A critical minerals partnership agreement between India and the US will help Indian firms in the sector to enjoy duty concessions and other benefits to sell products from the sector in the American market.

These benefits are provided by the US under its Inflation Reduction Act, which is aimed at boosting manufacturing capabilities. The benefits are extended to American firms or a firm in the country having FTA with the US. The CMPA is like an FTA in the critical minerals sector.

An official said the conversion of the MoU into a partnership agreement will give it the status of a trade deal, thereby enabling India to benefit from the electric vehicle tax credit that the US gives under its Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

Goyal also said during his visit, the US industry showed keen interest to increase investments in India in different sectors. Without disclosing name, he said a firm is looking at investments in the range of USD 10 billion in areas such as data centres and quantum computing for AI.

There were also discussions in the area of technology transfer.

“Also there is a great interest in co-development of new innovative ideas, R&D, and there was a talk of increasing collaboration to co-develop new technologies,” he said, adding that the 2-3 sectors that came up for discussions included pharma, digital technology, and telecom where India is looking at 6G in a big way.

The US companies are also keen in segments such as biosimilars and bio-sciences. During the visit, Goyal also co-chaired the US-India CEO Forum meeting with US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.

The other areas of deliberations in the forum meeting include ideas for further reduction in compliances, decriminalising business laws, “what we can do to facilitate easier flow of capitals, how to facilitate regulators to talk to each other more frequently and at some stage look at a mutual recognition agreement,” he said.

He added that there were no talks on visa issues, or work permits.

Both sides are also looking to restructure the CEO forum to widen representation, bringing in an element of tourism, getting the right set of people in terms of companies, and age profile.

The tenure of many of the members of the forum will get over in December.

“H1B visas are history now. I have invited companies to set up GCC (Global Capability Centres) in India,” he said.

Further, the minister said India is looking to open investment offices in New York and Silicon Valley that will have representatives from Invest India and National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (NICDC), and would aid investments into India.

On clean energy, the two sides discussed green hydrogen and green ammonia during his visit.