ICCFM Urges Government To Keep Agriculture Out Of India-US Trade Talks
The US has been engaged in a trade war with China, Mexico, and Canada since 2018, which has severely impacted US agricultural exports
The farmers' body ICCFM on Tuesday urged the government not to include any aspects of agriculture, including dairy, in the proposed bilateral trade agreement between India and the US, as it would have serious implications for the sector.
In a communication to Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, the Indian Coordination Committee of Farmers Movements (ICCFM) said the Indian government must stop any trade deal with the US that is detrimental to farmers' interests.
Expressing serious concerns regarding the ongoing negotiations for a trade deal with the US, it said, We urgently request you to exclude all aspects of agriculture from this trade deal to protect the interests of Indian farmers, ensuring our food sovereignty and security, and safeguarding the vitality of our rural economy".
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The potential consequences of a trade agreement that grants duty-free access to US agricultural products are deeply alarming, it added.
The Indian official team is in Washington for the fifth round of talks with the US on the trade agreement. The US is seeking concessions in the agri sector, but India has hardened its stance on that.
The US has been engaged in a trade war with China, Mexico, and Canada since 2018, which has severely impacted US agricultural exports.
For example, it said, soybean exports from the US plummeted from USD 34.4 billion in 2022 to USD 24.5 billion in 2024, and corn exports fell from USD 18.6 billion to USD 13.9 billion during the same period.
As a result, the US trade deficit in agriculture has nearly doubled, indicating a significant surplus that they may seek to offload onto markets like India, it added.
Further, the organisations also stated that the US government is among the world's largest agricultural subsidisers, with the 2024 Farm Bill allocating a staggering USD 1.5 trillion.
Allowing such heavily subsidised US imports into India would undermine our longstanding position at the World Trade Organization (WTO) against these very subsidies," it said.
The import of any such transgenic products into India, be it corn, soy, canola, cotton, or apples, is unacceptable due to concerns about biosafety, especially regarding herbicide-tolerant and glyphosate-tolerant crops, it added.
We urge you not to proceed with any trade deal with the USA that involves agriculture and threatens our farm livelihoods, specifically requesting that you refrain from signing any Free Trade Agreement in this sector, it noted.
(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)
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