‘Abki baar Trump se haar’: Congress takes aim at center over Trump tariffs; slams India’s trade deal with US India News

New Delhi: Congress secretary-general for communications Jairam Ramesh on Sunday stepped up his attack on the India-US interim trade agreement, saying the pact reflected “Abki baar Trump se haar” and should be “cold cold”.“His comments came after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to overturn President Donald Trump’s earlier global tariffs.He said the terms of the framework must be renegotiated and provisions on import liberalization, especially for agricultural products, must be scrapped, arguing that India had made concessions without getting enough benefits.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi had raised a slogan in Houston in 2019 – ‘Abki baar Trump Sarkaar’, but the framework of the interim agreement proves ‘Abki baar Trump se haar’,” he told PTI.Ramesh noted that the framework allows either party to amend its commitments if changes occur, and said India has the right to amend its obligations after Trump changed tariffs. “The first commitment we made was to reduce or eliminate tariffs on a wide range of food and agricultural products. Our request to the Prime Minister was to keep it cold,” he said.He said India has pledged to eliminate or reduce import tariffs on all U.S. industrial goods and a variety of U.S. food and agricultural products, a provision that should be revised in line with the joint statement. He warned that soybean, maize, fruits and nuts and cotton farmers in Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh will be directly affected.“Our second question is when the prime minister, the commerce minister (Piyush Goyal) knew from December that the Supreme Court ruling was coming at any time and many thought it could be overturned. Why rush to make a deal when you know the ruling could go against Trump,” he said.“I hope that given the huge confusion surrounding this issue, this joint statement is shelved and we renegotiate the terms, which is a one-sided agreement. This will harm the interests of thousands of farmers in different states of the country,” Ramesh added.Questioning the timing of the announcement, he asked what happened on February 2 that led the Prime Minister to “force” President Trump to announce the trade deal. “This is directly related to Mr. Rahul Gandhi’s attack in Parliament on the Prime Minister’s failure on external security. Therefore, announcing the agreement is part of managing news and headlines,” he claimed.Stepping up his campaign, Ramesh said the Congress will organize “Maha Kisan Maha Chaupal” events in multiple states to mobilize farmers and discuss the potential impact of the evolving trade deal.“We will organize the Maha Kisan Maha Chaupal in Bhopal, Yavatmal, Maharashtra on March 7, followed by Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan. We are in touch with farmer organizations. We will also work with them. Three black laws were repealed. It took 14-15 months, but Prime Minister Modi was forced to withdraw. The Prime Minister does “Tarif” while Trump continues to impose “Tariffs”. I’m telling you this based on President Trump’s statement,” he told ANI.A few days ago, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected most of Trump’s comprehensive tariff measures, ruling 6 to 3 that the government had exceeded its authority by using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 to impose broad import tariffs. The court held that the power to tax rests primarily with Congress.After the ruling, Trump announced a new 10% global tariff on all countries under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 as a temporary import surcharge of up to 15% for 150 days to address the balance of payments deficit. He later raised it to the “fully permitted and legally tested level of 15%” with immediate effect.