Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Thursday that he would not compromise the interests of the farmers in the country even if he had to pay a high price in his first comments after the US president Donald Trump of a 50% rate on Indian products.
Trump announced on Thursday an additional 25% rate on the South Asian nation, exporting the total levy on Indian products to the United States 50% among the highest of any American trading partner.
“For us, the well-being of our farmers is supreme,” said Modi in a function in New Delhi. “India will never compromise on the well-being of its farmers, its dairy products (sector) and its fishermen. And I know that personally, I will have to pay a high price,” he said.
Trade negotiations between India and the United States collapsed after five cycles of negotiations on the opening of the large sectors of the farm and dairy products from India and stopping Russian oil purchases.
Modi did not directly refer the American prices or the commercial talks.
The new price, in force from August 28, was to penalize India for its purchase of Russian oil, said Trump.
The Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the decision was “extremely unhappy” and that “India will take all the necessary measures to protect its national interests”.
The United States has not yet announced a similar price for China, which is the largest Russian oil buyer.
Read: India feels the pinch while Trump doubles prices
Experts said China had been spared since it had a negotiation program with the United States about its reserves of rare earth minerals and other products of this type, which are lacking in India.
“American tariff hike lacks logic,” Dammu Ravi, secretary to economic relations secretary at the Department of Foreign Affairs in India, told journalists.
“It is therefore a temporary aberration, a temporary problem with which the country will face, but over time, we are convinced that the world will find solutions.”
India has started to make measures to point out that it might have to consider other partnerships in the coming months against Trump’s prices, which have led to the worst diplomatic strength between the two countries for years.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is preparing for his first visit to China in more than seven years, suggesting a potential realignment in alliances as relations with the fray of Washington.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva said on Wednesday that he would in love a conversation between the Brics of Development Nations group on how to fight Trump’s prices.
He said he was planning to call Modi on Thursday and Xi Jinping in China and other leaders.
The Brics group also includes Russia and South Africa.
Ravi said that “the countries sharing the same ideas will seek cooperation and economic commitment which will be mutually beneficial for all parties”.
