No concessions, commitments on ethanol import for fuel blending from US in trade talks

New Delhi: India Thursday dismissed claims of US ethanol imports for fuel blending, stating that no concessions or commitments relating to the import of ethanol for fuel blending from the US have been made in their trade discussions and that all sourcing is being done from domestic producers.

India’s fuel blending programme and ethanol procurement continue to be governed “solely by the country’s domestic policy requirements”, the commerce and industry ministry said.

“As per the domestic policy framework, ethanol used for fuel blending under the Ethanol Blended with Petrol Programme is sourced entirely from domestic producers. There is no import of ethanol for fuel blending from the US. Further, no concessions or commitments relating to the import of ethanol for fuel blending from the US have been made in the India-US trade discussions,” the ministry said in a statement, dismissing reports of a policy shift as “misleading”.


Under the interim trade agreement with the US announced in February 2026, India had agreed to provide greater market access for select US industrial and agricultural products, including items such as dried distillers’ grains, red sorghum, soybean oil, fruits and nuts. However, ethanol was not included among the products opened for US imports under the agreement.

Last week, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said that the first tranche of the bilateral trade agreement (BTA) between India and the US will come into operation as soon as Washington is able to ensure that India gets a comparative advantage over its competitors.

New Delhi also participated in the Section 301 probes initiated by the US against India and some others. While tariffs had been imposed in the case of one probe, the result of the other one was awaited.

India’s goods exports to the US fell a marginal 0.06% on-year in the first quarter of FY27 at $25.46 billion and imports rose 23.82% to $16.6 billion in the same period.

Noting that any suggestion of a policy change to permit large-scale imports of fuel ethanol from the US is misleading, the ministry said: “India’s fuel blending programme and ethanol procurement continues to be governed solely by India’s domestic policy requirements”.