Several India farm groups plan nationwide actions on Feb. 12 against the interim U.S.-India trade deal announced last week, whose terms will harm agriculture in multiple ways. The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) umbrella association of farmers’ organizations is coordinating a general strike. A member of its coordinating group told the media this week, “Indian agriculture would be left hanging at the mercy of multinational corporations, undermining food sovereignty, rural employment, and long term sustainability.” Over 80% of India’s farmers are family, small-scale operations.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer is promoting the U.S.-India deal with wild-eyed geopolitical logic. Farmers anywhere be damned. Speaking on Fox News this week, Greer said that the India deal is a way to put “America First” in trade, by stepping back from China, and using India as an “off-ramp” for U.S.-based transnational companies. He called the India gambit a “global waystation” for companies exiting the Chinese market for an alternative market. He said that the ideal is for production to return to the U.S., but in the meantime, there is a process of “near-shoring” going on, where India can serve as a secondary hub for U.S. companies. Greer refers generally to all categories of trade, from electronics, to food, with the anti-reality, anti-China point applicable.
Under last week’s interim framework for a U.S.-India trade agreement, India is to “eliminate or reduce tariffs on all U.S. industrial goods and a wide range of U.S. food and agriculture products.” India’s tariffs on U.S. agriculture imports, which had ranged from 30 to 150%, are to be cut to zero. Meantime, existing tariffs on Indian agriculture products entering the U.S. are to be in the range of 18%. In recent decades, transnational companies have “off-shored” from the U.S. all kinds of food production to India, for export back into the U.S., from pickles to shrimp.
The U.S. products pushed onto the market in India are to include livestock feeds, tree nuts, fresh and processed fruits, soybean oil, wine and spirits. Dairy is a special concern. The animal feed includes red sorghum, and also DDG—dried distillers’ grains—which the U.S. promotes for export intensely internationally, because it is a byproduct of corn-ethanol, which is a major part of the U.S. crop production profile.Feb. 11, 2026 (EIRNS)—Several India farm groups plan nationwide actions on Feb. 12 against the interim U.S.-India trade deal announced last week, whose terms will harm agriculture in multiple ways. The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) umbrella association of farmers’ organizations is coordinating a general strike. A member of its coordinating group told the media this week, “Indian agriculture would be left hanging at the mercy of multinational corporations, undermining food sovereignty, rural employment, and long term sustainability.” Over 80% of India’s farmers are family, small-scale operations.
