Several farmer organisations, including Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), its non-political faction and All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), on Saturday criticised the India–US interim trade agreement and announced countrywide protests against it. The announcement came a day after India and US said that they had reached a framework for an interim trade deal aimed at boosting bilateral trade.
Under the agreement, US will reduce tariffs on Indian goods to 18 percent from 50 percent, while India will eliminate or reduce import duties on US industrial goods and a wide range of American food and agricultural products, including dried distillers' grains, red sorghum for animal feed, tree nuts, fresh and processed fruit, soybean oil, wine and spirits.
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‘Total surrender' of Indian agriculture: SKM
In a statement issued on Saturday, the SKM termed the proposed framework a “total surrender” of Indian agriculture to American multinational corporations and demanded the immediate resignation of Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal. Addressing an online press conference, SKM leaders said that the protests would be held in villages across the country, and effigies of US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be burnt. The SKM also extended support to the February 12 general strike.
In its statement, the SKM said, “The framework is an abject rejection of the claim of the Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal that the agriculture and dairy sectors are out of the Free Trade Agreements and the Government of India will not make any compromise on the interests of agriculture.”
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It added, “The commerce minister is consciously propagating falsehood and betraying the farmers and the entire people. SKM considers the role of the commerce minister as a traitor and demands his immediate resignation."
Farmers, unions warn of impact on agriculture
As per reports, AIKS leader Krishna Prasad said that the deal would deeply impact agriculture by opening Indian markets to products such as dried distillers' grains, red sorghum for animal feed and soybean oil, and claimed it would also affect the dairy sector. He said the deals with the US and the European Union were meant to benefit their “stagnant” economies and were not in India’s interest.
Activist Sunilam said the issue should be debated in Parliament, while Krantikari Kisan Union (Punjab) leader Darshan Pal said his organisation would burn effigies of Trump and Modi, adding that the deal would further hurt farmers already facing low incomes and loan stress. Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait said villagers are questioning how the deals will affect them and urged farmers to join the protests.
Meanwhile, the Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions (CTUs) and sectoral federations have announced a one-day general strike on February 12 against labour codes and the trade deals.
