US trade deal: Farmers secure, agriculture and dairy interests protected, says Piyush Goyal | Business News

Given India’s political economy, New Delhi has sought to shield its agricultural and dairy sectors from imports while negotiating trade agreements. Opposition parties including the Congress have also expressed serious concerns about farmers’ interests being jeopardised and demanded more transparency.

Minister Goyal said the interests of farmers were fully safeguarded and their protection was a priority throughout the negotiations. “The Prime Minister is constantly concerned about our farmers, those associated with animal husbandry, and the dairy sector. He has never allowed their interests to be compromised… In this US trade deal, the sensitive sectors of agriculture and dairy have been protected,” he said at a media conference Tuesday.

Describing India’s trade deal with the US as “historic” and much better than what its competitors managed, Goyal said it would help bolster the Indian economy and help a range of sectors. The deal is not just about trade but also about integrating India into global value chains (GVCs) and attracting investments worth lakhs of crores into the country, he said.

While finer details of the trade deal are awaited, USTR Greer said in an interview to CNBC that the US will continue to maintain some level of tariff against India (18 per cent) “because we have this giant trade deficit with them”. “This is it. The time has come, and now we have the deal. We will finish papering it, but we know the specifics. We know the details. It’s a very exciting opportunity,” he said.

US Agriculture Secretary Rollins said America’s agricultural trade deficit with India was $1.3 billion in 2024. India’s growing population is an important market for American agricultural products and that the deal will go a long way to reducing this deficit, she said. “America First victory on top of the dozens of deals for ag (agriculture),” she said on X.

Besides Goyal, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan too sought to allay fears and concerns of Opposition parties including Congress that farmers would be adversely impacted. The latter informed Parliament on Tuesday that the government undertakes negotiations for Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) only after carefully safeguarding the interests of Indian agriculture, allied sectors and farmers, including small and marginal farmers.

In a written reply to a Parliament question, Union Agriculture Minister Chouhan said, “Adequate safeguards are built in to protect sensitive sectors such as agriculture and dairy from unfair competition.”

Goyal also said the US trade deal will give a boost to labour-intensive and export-oriented sectors like textiles and apparel, seafood, engineering goods and machine parts, gems and jewellery, leather and footwear, technology, and chemicals. Many of these had been hit hard due to the 50% tariffs. He said the deal will benefit the workforce in various sectors and segments, particularly those in small and medium enterprises.

According to him, this deal will also help India access world-class technology in Artificial Intelligence (AI), semiconductors, and critical minerals, apart from paving the way for high-performance data centres and Global Capability Centres (GCCs) to be set up in India. Goyal said he wanted to speak on the deal in Parliament, but blamed the Congress and other opposition parties for not being able to do so.