Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was ready this Thursday to “personally the prize” of the defense of farmers in his country against Donald Trump’s desire to increase customs surcharge in India’s products.
“We will not compromise the interests of our farmers, our dairy sector, our fishermen,” Narendra Modi said in a speech held at a conference in New Delhi, the comments considered their first public response to the bidder of the president’s price.
On Wednesday, Washington announced the 50% increase in customs surcharge in Indian products imported from the United States due to the purchase of New Delhi of Russian oil, a key source of income for Moscow dedicated to war in Ukraine. For New Delhi, one of the main points of discord is Washington’s demand to access the vast agricultural market and Indian dairy products.
“Targery negotiator”
The Indian government is firm to defend its agricultural sector that requires abundant workforce and not risk altering farmers, a powerful electoral block. Nueva Delhi also fears that an authorization to import dairy products to attack the cultural and religious sensibilities of the Hindu majority of India, which loves cows as sacred animals.
He also refused to authorize the importation of genetically modified products. The United States is the first commercial partner of India, New Delhi, exports for $ 87.4 billion in the country. Negotiations between India and the United States about Donald Trump’s customs had begun under promising auspices.
The US president called Narendra Modi as a “much more difficult negotiator” than him and believed that there was a “special link” between them. The successive US administrations have considered India, the most populous nation in the world and the fifth world economy, as a key partner and with common interests against Chinese power.
India and its Chinese rivals have long competed for strategic influence in southern Asia. According to the Indian media, Narendra Modi could go to China at the end of August, which would be his first visit to the country since 2018. No official source has confirmed this project. The last meeting between the Indian Prime Minister and the Chinese President Xi Jinping October 2024, in Russia.
Source: BFM TV
