Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Sunday asserted that the government has safeguarded the interests of India’s farmers in the interim trade agreement framework with the US. Opposition parties, however, said they would demand answers on the issue in Parliament on Monday.
Several trade unions and farmer organisations have announced a strike on February 12, alleging that the government has “surrendered” to the US by “opening up the agriculture sector to American multinational companies”.
Affiliates of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), particularly the Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), the Sangh Parivar’s economic think tank, and the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS), have taken a more nuanced view of the India-US trade deal.
SJM national co-convenor Ashwani Mahajan told Business Standard that the government has worked out the “best possible scenario” in this context. He said any critique of the deal should consider the relative tariffs imposed by the White House on goods from countries that compete with India, noting that in almost all cases, the 18 percent tariff on Indian goods is lower.
He added that India walked out of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) to protect the livelihoods of its farmers and dairy industry, and this principle has guided its trade negotiations with the European Union, Australia, the UK, and now the US.
“We cannot go by what the US Trade Representative and others are saying. We should trust our government and ministers on the issue since they are answerable to our Parliament and the people. The government has maintained that strict quantitative restrictions have been put on the imports of soybean oil and animal feed,” Mahajan said, adding that India could raise tariffs on these commodities if the US violates the quantitative restrictions.
Mahajan said the US using phrases, such as it would “monitor” India’s purchases of Russian oil, was in “bad taste”. However, he noted that India’s savings from Russian oil purchases are no longer as significant as they were a few years ago.
The BKS welcomed the interim agreement of the India-US trade deal but with caveats. In a statement, BKS general secretary Mohini Mohan Mishra said genetically modified (GM) products should not be allowed in the country under any circumstances, under any name or conditions, and the government should provide more clarity on the subject.
Several farmer organisations, including the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) and the All India Kisan Sabha (affiliated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist)), have announced protests against the trade deal.
The SKM has said the proposed interim framework amounted to a “total surrender” of Indian agriculture to US multinational corporations and demanded the immediate resignation of Goyal. SKM leaders have said protests would be held across the country in villages, and they would burn effigies of US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The SKM also extended its support to the February 12 general strike.
Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait said people in villages were questioning how the deals would affect them and called upon farmers to join the protest.
The Congress and Left parties have also criticised the government for the trade deal framework and will demand replies in Parliament. “The India-US trade deal framework represents a meek surrender by the Modi government to Trump’s diktat. It is a blatant attack on India’s sovereignty, autonomy, and the rights and livelihoods of our farmers,” said CPI (M) L General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) said the government had made sweeping concessions to the US, posing a threat to India’s economy, agriculture, and national sovereignty. It flagged zero tariffs on US exports of fruits, cotton, tree nuts, soybean oil. Apple farmers in Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and other states are already suffering due to trade agreements signed earlier with countries such as New Zealand, it said.
Cotton farmers, already burdened by rising input costs and deepening agrarian distress, would face similar challenges, and Indian farmers would compete with heavily subsidised US farm products, making Indian agriculture increasingly unviable, the CPI(M) added on Sunday.
 "Farmer bodies slam govt over India-US deal, announce protest on Feb 12")
