Congress leader Rahul Gandhi ramped up his criticism of the Centre regarding the India–US interim trade agreement and its impact on Indian farmers and agricultural sovereignty.
In a post made via X, the opposition leader in Lok Sabha stated, “We are seeing a betrayal of Indian farmers through a US trade deal.” To further emphasize his point, he posed five queries to Prime Minister Narendra Modi directly.
Concerns raised by Rahul Gandhi
One concern raised by Gandhi was regarding the impact of Dried Distillers’ Grains (DDGs) on India’s dairy sector. He asked if Indian cattle would be provided with DDGs created from genetically modified (GM) American corn and whether that could result in India being beholden to US agriculture for its milk supply.
And another concern raised was regarding the potential for GM soybean oil to be imported into India. Based on that potential importation, Gandhi expressed concerns about this creating pricing shocks for US soybean farmers located in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and the other producing States.
A third major concern raised by Gandhi was regarding the phrase, “additional products,” which appears in the framework of the trade agreement and whether it is intended to create pressure over time to open up imports of pulses and other crops to US importation.
He wanted clarification on what exactly removing “non-trade barriers” will mean. Would India be required to compromise its position on GM crops, relax its procurement system, or lower or eliminate its guarantee of a minimum support price (MSP) and bonuses?
Gandhi also wanted to know what could be done to stop this agreement from increasing participants every year. He stated that after the door is opened, how do we stop it from becoming wider? Farmers need to know what is happening to them.
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Government’s Response on Trade Deal
India and the Unites States just signed an agreement to reduce tariffs and increase trade between the two countries. Under this agreement, the U.S. will cut approximately 18% from tariffs imposed on products imported from India, down from 50% imposed earlier.
In return, India will increase its purchase of products from the U.S. to include energy and technology, with a target- $500 billion over the next few years.
The Indian government has said the agreement will not include any sensitive agricultural imports, and therefore India’s policy space has been preserved. Indian officials have expressed confidence in the protection of farmers’ interests through this agreement.
The disagreement between Home Minister Amit Shah and Gandhi was over whether or not Gandhi was giving false information about the agreement and about farmers and fishermen, as well as calling on people not to look at the details of the trade agreements with the US, UK and EU before coming to a conclusion.
Government’s position on the trade deal
The Trade Agreement has become a political flashpoint very quickly. Shortly after the Trade Agreement was signed, Gandhi and others met with the farming unions, in Parliament, to discuss the potential for a mass movement across India to oppose it.
Gandhi has said that the trade agreement does not provide any long-term agricultural security for India and asks if India is giving up control of what happens to its agricultural crops to another nation (the US).
As the debate intensifies and more discussions are taking place All of the major and minor political parties in India are going to be talking about this Trade Agreement and making their arguments for or against it in the next several weeks.
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