Modi should stop appeasing Trump, says Congress on trade talks

The Congress has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to sign the proposed India-US trade agreement, alleging it is against India's interests. Jairam Ramesh claimed the US is pressuring India through trade investigations and warned of adverse impacts on farmers

New Delhi: With US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer visiting India, the Congress on Tuesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi must stop appeasing his “good friend” President Donald Trump and that there is absolutely no need for India to be “bamboozled” into signing any trade pact that, at present, is heavily against its interests.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the Modi government must seek inspiration from Malaysia, which has rebuffed its own trade deal with America following the US Supreme Court’s verdict.

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“The US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer is in New Delhi today and tomorrow. On the request of PM Modi, while he was under pressure from Rahul Gandhi’s expose in Parliament of his cowardice in front of China, an India-US joint statement on trade was issued on February 6, 2026,” Ramesh said on X.

“The US promised to reduce tariffs on Indian exports from 25 per cent to 18 per cent. India promised to eliminate its tariffs or reduce them deeply on US agricultural commodities and industrial products and purchase up to USD 500 billion from the US over five years,” he said.

Ramesh pointed out that on February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court of the US ruled that President Trump’s reciprocal tariff strategy was illegal.

The very tariff concession that the US had offered India in the February 6, 2026, joint statement effectively disappeared overnight, he said.

“Within hours of the US Supreme Court ruling, the US imposed a temporary 10 per cent tariff on all its trading partners, including India. The legal basis for this expires on July 24, 2026. There is considerable uncertainty on what will happen thereafter,” Ramesh said.

However, India, along with about 60 other countries, is under investigation by the US for unfair trade practices that supposedly violate US laws, he said, adding that final outcomes from this investigation are expected in the coming weeks.

The US is clearly using this investigation as a threat to get India to formally sign the agreement as announced on February 6, 2026, he said.

“Such an agreement is not a deal but a steal by the US. Indian farmers in different states, including J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, will be very adversely impacted. The US makes very few firm commitments, whereas India commits to at least trebling its present levels of annual imports from the US,” Ramesh said.

Despite having trade agreements with Japan and the EU, the US has threatened increased tariffs on them, he said.

Even if a deal is signed, what and where is the guarantee that tariffs will not be unilaterally imposed or threatened to be imposed thereafter, Ramesh asked.

“There is absolutely no need for India to be bamboozled into signing any trade agreement which, as it stands now, is heavily against India’s interests,” Ramesh said.

“PM Modi must stop appeasing his good friend President Trump, who has claimed more than 100 times that he halted Operation Sindoor and is yet to be challenged by Mr Modi on that claim,” the Congress leader said.

Greer is visiting India to take forward the discussions on the interim trade deal agreed to by Prime Minister Modi and President Trump in February.

Trump and Modi met on the sidelines of the G7 meeting in France last week, where the US president said that India and the US were very close to finalising the trade agreement.