India to Stand Tall Against Trump Tariffs

It didn't take long for important news about India to surface.

India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal

Guancha’s headline article appeared today providing much needed information on India and its position relative to Trump’s Tariff War: “India's Minister of Commerce and Industry: Will negotiate with the United States from a position of strength and will not be bound by deadlines.” It’s impossible to know how much impact the BRICS Summit in Rio had on this assertion of power, although it’s clear from India’s trade history that it’s stood up to the Outlaw US Empire before, particularly on the issue of GMO foodstuffs and organisms. It serves to remind readers that some of the most vocal and powerful voices over ecological imperialism came from India, particularly over the use of traditional Indian medicinal practices and their natural components. Most readers will have heard of Vandana Shiva and perhaps read some of her very powerful books that were published in the late 1990s, Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge, and Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply. As you’ll see when clicking the above link, she’s written a massive amount on those subjects and others while inspiring others. The Indian government’s position on agriculture was vastly influenced by her and many others’ activism efforts over the years that haven’t relented. Another Indian writer I was impressed with is Arundhati Roy whose The God of Small Things won the 1997 Booker Prize for Fiction which launched her non-fiction writing career where her activism is quite clear. Her voice and activism also deeply affected Indian politics. All that aside, let’s read about India’s boldness:

India was one of the first countries to negotiate a trade deal with the United States, but the deadline for the United States to raise tariffs is approaching, and the two sides have still not reached an agreement. According to India's Economic Times reported on July 5, Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal said on the same day that India will negotiate "from a position of strength" and will not rush to sign agreements that are not in the national interest before the deadline.

"We negotiate with national interests in mind, and national interests are essential in all our global engagements," Goyal said at a conference. “Since the Modi government came to power, we have signed free trade agreements with Mauritius, the United Arab Emirates, Australia and the European Free Trade Association countries-–Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein-–as well as free trade agreements with the United Kingdom.”

He stressed that India's trade negotiations will not be bound by deadlines, "Today, India will negotiate from a position of strength. We are confident that we can compete with any country in the world.”

Since the start of trade talks between the United States and India, officials from both countries have been claiming that India could be "the first country to reach an agreement with the United States," but the talks quickly stalled. July 9 is the 90-day deadline for the United States to suspend so-called "reciprocal tariffs," and India faces a 26 percent tariff if it fails to reach a trade deal with the United States by the deadline.

Bloomberg reported that the Indian government has taken a more cautious stance on issues such as agriculture in recent negotiations. The United States wants to give genetically modified crops to the Indian market, while India is reluctant to make deals that could undermine the interests of its own farmers. India has offered to allow the import of some genetically modified animal feed, but US officials have rejected it.

Opposition and peasant groups in India are putting pressure on the Modi government, warning Prime Minister Modi not to make "excessive concessions" to the United States. Avik Saha, a member of the farmers' group Samyukt Kisan Morcha, said Indian farmers are already under severe economic pressure and allowing U.S. genetically modified crops to enter the Indian market will further hurt farmers.

Bloomberg notes that the Indian government does not allow the cultivation of genetically modified crops, despite the fact that genetically modified varieties can increase yields. India's Supreme Court blocked the commercial release of genetically modified mustard, and the Indian government rejected a genetically modified eggplant in 2010.

In addition, the U.S. wants India to make concessions in the automotive sector and offer concessions to U.S. parts manufacturers, but India believes that such a move will adversely affect its domestic industry.

Some officials familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that India has put forward its negotiating bottom line to the United States, including that it will not allow the United States to export genetically modified crops to India, and that it will not open up India's dairy and automotive industries to the United States. People familiar with the matter said that whether the two sides can reach an agreement depends on the attitude of US President Donald Trump.

The Indian Business Line, citing sources, said India wants to gain market access in "areas of interest" through trade deals, including some labor-intensive products, and gain priority in those areas. Another source revealed that India is also proposing to reduce tariffs on US goods in a number of areas.

India's finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, said last month that the United States is one of India's most important trading partners and that India wants a "big, good, beautiful" trade deal with the United States, but agriculture and dairy products are the two "red lines" in the negotiations. "We can't do anything that will weaken our agriculture and our position as farmers," she stressed.”

However, India's main opposition Congress Party doubts that the Modi government can really remain tough on the United States, and Congress Party leader Rahul Gandhi said on the 5th: "Remember my words, Modi will meekly yield to Trump's tariff deadline."

Mukesh Aji, chairman of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum, said: "Whatever the Indian government does, it will be seen as they are essentially capitulating to Trump's demands. So, they're now in a situation where there's no winner.”

According to Reuters, on July 4, local time, India informed the World Trade Organization that India plans to impose retaliatory tariffs on the United States due to the impact of tariffs imposed by the United States on automobiles and parts to Indian exports. India said that the 25% tariff imposed by the United States on the above products will affect India's exports worth $2.89 billion, and the US side will pay $725 million in taxes on this tariff, and India will impose "equal tariffs on products originating in the United States."

According to the Office of the United States Trade Representative, the bilateral trade volume between India and the United States in 2024 is about $129 billion, with total U.S. merchandise exports to India at $41.8 billion, imports of $87.4 billion, and a trade deficit of $45.7 billion. India's exports to the United States rose to $17.25 billion in April-May this year from $14.17 billion a year earlier, Reuters said. [My Emphasis]

The attempt by the Outlaw US Empire to infiltrate GMOs into India has a long, sordid history which Vandana Shiva did much to expose and inform the world about. GMO material is copywritten meaning if its seed is used without paying for it, such use constitutes intellectual property theft, meaning GMOs install a monopoly over farmers who have always saved seed from the harvest to use for the next season’s crop. The supposed higher yields that are dubious is the lure as farmers always want such outcomes. If the above issues are foreign to you, I suggest the two Shiva books cited above as places to start. And of course, The Empire has a big trade deficit with India as the Empire makes little Indians want of more importantly can afford to buy. India has always favored Soviet/Russian weaponry because its better and costs less. India also wants to grow its own tech industry and thus promotes its own goods and tariffs US tech. Predicting what Trump will do on the tariff issue is a fool’s quest, with the safest bet no being his further delaying it since so few nations have deemed his butt worthy of kissing.

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