Farmers Protest India-US Trade Deal at Jantar Mantar

New Delhi, Jun 23 (PTI) The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) on Tuesday held a protest at Jantar Mantar against the proposed India-US trade agreement, with farmers raising concerns over the possible impact of the pact on agriculture, dairy and poultry sectors.

The farmers' body said if agricultural products from US enter the Indian market without import duties, the agriculture sector of the country will be "destroyed".

Hundreds of farmers carrying flags of farmer organisations raised slogans of "US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer go back from India" and "American domination will not be allowed in India", among others, it said in a statement.

Farmer leaders, including Jagjit Singh Dallewal, Satnam Singh Behr, P R Pandiyan, Jitendra Sharma and Abhimanyu Kohar were present at the protest.

Farmer leaders said US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer arrived in India on Monday evening for discussions to finalise the India-US trade agreement and claimed that farmers had several concerns over the proposed deal.

They alleged that officials from both countries indicated that the initial documents of the agreement would be based on the framework signed in the first week of February.


The farmer body claimed that the framework provided for reducing or removing import duties on agricultural and food products coming from the US, which, it said, would severely affect Indian farmers.

"If agricultural and food products from the US enter India at very low prices without import duties, the agriculture sector will be completely destroyed," farmer leaders said.

They also referred to recent remarks by the US side that India had agreed to import USD 500 billion worth of agricultural, energy and industrial products from the US over the next five years, and claimed that the proposed agricultural imports would have an adverse impact on Indian farmers.

Farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal said that if the government did not exclude agriculture, dairy and poultry sectors from the proposed trade agreement, farmers would begin a foot march on August 15 from the Data Singhwala-Khanauri border point, where farmer Shubhkaran Singh had died during the earlier farmers' protest.

The march would culminate with a farmers' rally at Jantar Mantar on August 25, he said.

The organisation said a national meeting of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) would be held in Madhya Pradesh on July 20 to prepare the roadmap for the proposed march.