The Indian Coordination Committee of Farmers Actions (ICCFM), a community of farmers’ organisations throughout 11 states together with Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, has urged the federal government to exclude all facets of agriculture from the US commerce deal with the intention to shield the pursuits of Indian farmers.
“If the Indian authorities strikes ahead with commerce offers that overlook crucial points affecting our farmers, actions like ours might be compelled to accentuate our protests in opposition to such anti-farmer insurance policies. Nonetheless, we’re hopeful that the identical sentiment which led India to properly withdraw from the RCEP commerce negotiations will prevail on this case as properly,” the farmers’ physique mentioned in a press release to the federal government amid ongoing negotiations.
In a letter to Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, the ICCFM warned that granting duty-free entry to US agricultural merchandise beneath a commerce settlement might have critical penalties. It famous that the US has been engaged in a commerce conflict with China, Mexico, and Canada since 2018, which has severely affected its agricultural exports.
“The US commerce deficit in agriculture has almost doubled, indicating a big surplus they might search to dump onto markets like India. For instance, soybean exports from the US dropped from $34.4 billion in 2022 to $24.5 billion in 2024, whereas corn exports fell from $18.6 billion to $13.9 billion throughout the identical interval,” the letter acknowledged.
The ICCFM additional emphasised the danger to Indian farmers, stating that the US authorities is among the many world’s largest agricultural subsidisers. The 2024 Farm Invoice has allotted a staggering $1.5 trillion in direction of farm subsidies. These substantial helps not solely prohibit agricultural imports into the US but additionally allow American merchandise to enter export markets at artificially low costs. Permitting such closely subsidised US imports into India, the ICCFM argued, would undermine India’s longstanding place on the World Commerce Group (WTO) in opposition to these very subsidies.
Notably, a current report by the State Financial institution of India (SBI) cautioned that opening India’s dairy sector to US imports might end in an annual lack of Rs 1.03 lakh crore to Indian dairy farmers. The report highlighted that milk costs in India might drop by no less than 15 per cent if the sector is opened up, considerably affecting the livelihoods of small dairy farmers as a result of closely subsidised US dairy trade.
The farmers’ physique additionally criticised the US for threatening Indian farmers’ livelihoods on the WTO by difficult the modest help offered by the Indian authorities by way of public procurement schemes, citing alleged violations of WTO guidelines.
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“That is regardless of the obvious lack of a degree enjoying subject. The US Farm Invoice 2019 alone allotted $867 billion in subsidies for American farmers, whereas an OECD research signifies that the combination Producer Help Estimate for Indian farmers was a adverse 14 per cent over 2000–2016,” the letter acknowledged.
On the difficulty of edible oil, the ICCFM identified that the US is the world’s third-largest exporter of soybean oil.
“India, as soon as self-sufficient in edible oil, now imports almost 70 per cent of its necessities because of anti-farmer commerce insurance policies. On 31 Might, India halved the import responsibility on crude palm oil, soybean oil, and sunflower oil—from 20 per cent to 10 per cent—citing inflation. This responsibility reduce, ostensibly made within the identify of a Free Commerce Settlement (FTA), primarily advantages giant importers who dominate the import and processing of crude edible oil,” the letter acknowledged.
Whereas former US President Donald Trump supported giant American agribusinesses, India’s management should shield its small-scale producers who feed the nation, the farmers mentioned, including that India has the capability to supply extra edible oil, and decreasing import duties solely undermines home cultivation—benefiting companies on the expense of Indian farmers.
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