NEW DELHI: Congress MP Jairam Ramesh on Saturday took a “Dost dost na raha” jibe at PM Modi, referring to his and US President Donald Trump’s friendship, after the recently announced India-US trade framework. Ramesh criticised the deal, saying it benefits American farmers at the expense of Indian ones and raised concerns over India’s agreement to stop importing oil from Russia, confirmed by the White House.
In an X post, Ramesh said, “Nothing in the recently released US-India joint statement has been made clear regarding the details. But from what has come to light so far, it’s evident that: India will no longer import oil from Russia. Separately, the US has also announced that if India buys oil from Russia, directly or indirectly, a 25 per cent penalty could be reimposed.”“To help American farmers at the expense of Indian farmers, India will slash import duties by a huge margin. India’s annual imports from the US will triple, wiping out our long-standing surplus in goods trade. Uncertainty will persist over India’s exports of IT and other services to the US. India’s goods exports will face higher duties in the US than before.”Ramesh added that the “photo-ops” did not amount to much benefits for India.“All those hugs and photo-ops have yielded no special results. Namaste Trump has come down heavily on Howdy Modi. Dost dost na raha,” he added.The Congress leader’s criticism comes in response to the framework announced by India and the US for an Interim Agreement on trade. The framework reaffirms the countries’ commitment to broader Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) negotiations, launched by Donald Trump and PM Modi on February 13. These negotiations are expected to include additional market access commitments and support more resilient supply chains.As per the joint statement, the US will apply a reciprocal tariff rate of 18 per cent on Indian-originating goods, including textiles and apparel, leather and footwear, plastic and rubber, organic chemicals, home decor, artisanal products, and certain machinery. The US will also remove tariffs on certain aircraft and aircraft parts from India, previously imposed to address national security concerns.India, in turn, will eliminate or reduce tariffs on all US industrial goods and a wide range of food and agricultural products, including dried distillers’ grains (DDGs), red sorghum for animal feed, tree nuts, fresh and processed fruit, soybean oil, wine and spirits. India also intends to purchase $500 billion of US energy products, aircraft and aircraft parts, precious metals, technology products, and coking coal over the next five years.
