"PM Modi played to the tunes of President Trump": Congress leader slams PM over India-US trade deal

New Delhi [India], February 7 (ANI): Congress leader Supriya Shrinate on Saturday launched an attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the interim India-US trade agreement, claiming that the latter has "played to the tunes of President Trump", which resulted in a "detrimental" deal for India's interest.
Referring to US President Trump's Truth Social post on February 2, she claimed that today's India-US joint statement was no different from it, accusing the Centre of remaining silent.
"Prime Minister Modi has played to the tunes of President Trump and signed a trade deal which is detrimental for India's interests. The reality of this trade deal is that the joint statement is exactly the same and reflects the same things that President Trump had said four days back on which the Govt of India, on which the Modi Govt had said nothing. They had made no statements and said nothing," she said.
Terming this "a complete surrender before the US", she questioned the reason for celebrating this trade deal, as India used to pay tariffs below 18% in the past.
"America is going to charge an 18% tariff on India's goods, that tariff used to be under 3%. What are we celebrating? The tariff going up 6-fold? The joint statement clearly says that we are going to reduce tariff and make tariff zero in some cases for America's products," she said.
Citing the joint statement, Shrinate said that Indian markets are now open to American farmers, adding "We have committed to buying 100 billion dollars worth of goods for 5 years, which is 500 billion dollar of goods."
She further flagged the "language" used in the joint statement, claiming that Trump "goes on to threaten us by saying we will keep an eye on India and if we ever find out that they are buying Russian oil, that tariff will be reimposed."
"I want to ask a simple question, why are we reducing tariff on American goods to zero? Why are we going to stop buying cheap Russian oil? What exactly are we celebrating?" she questioned.
On February 6, India and the US announced a framework for an Interim Agreement regarding reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade.
The joint statement said that the framework reaffirms the countries' commitment to the broader Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) negotiations, launched by President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 13, 2025, which will include additional market access commitments and support more resilient supply chains.
As per the joint statement, the US will apply a reciprocal tariff rate of 18 per cent on Indian originating goods, including textiles and apparel, leather and footwear, plastic and rubber, organic chemicals, home decor, artisanal products, and certain machinery.
The White House said the US will continue to monitor India's compliance, particularly with respect to the import of Russian oil. If India resumes direct or indirect imports of Russian Federation oil, the administration may consider reimposing the additional tariff.
US had earlier imposed an additional 25% tariff on goods from India, saying the country directly or indirectly imported Russian oil.
Meanwhile, Piyush Goyal has assured farmers of complete protection under the agreement.
He said, "Agricultural products from Indian farmers will be exported to the United States at zero duty. At the same time, no tariff concessions have been granted for agricultural products from US farmers entering the Indian market.
"One opening up of Distiller's Dried Grains market, he said, "We have opened our markets for the US on some products like Distiller's Dried Grains with Solubles (DDGS), wines & spirits in which we have kept a minimum import price also."Goyal also informed that Agricultural products from Indian farmers will be exported to the United States at zero duty.
Minister Goyal said, "Agricultural products from Indian farmers will be exported to the United States at zero duty. At the same time, no tariff concessions have been granted to US farmers for agricultural products entering the Indian market. The agreement also makes it clear that genetically modified (GM) food will not be allowed into India."
"I can state categorically and without any hesitation that India's farmers, MSMEs, artisans, and craftsmen will not suffer any loss. On the contrary, India will benefit from greater access to the US market," the minister said. (ANI)