Published Wed, Feb 11, 2026 · 07:12 AM
[DELHI] India has agreed to phase out duties on a range of agricultural products, including ‘certain pulses’ and ‘additional’ farm products, a White House fact sheet showed, fuelling opposition criticism over lack of transparency and impact on farmers in the South Asian nation.
The fact sheet mentioned that India will “eliminate or reduce tariffs” on a wide range of American food and agricultural products, including dried distillers’ grains, red sorghum, tree nuts, fresh and processed fruit, certain pulses, soybean oil, wine and spirits, and additional products. Pulses and the vague reference to additional items were, however, not part of the joint statement the two nations issued on Feb 6.
India is the world’s biggest producer and consumer of pulses and also imports them from nations including Canada, Australia, and Myanmar. The concessions will make US supplies more competitive compared with shipments from rivals.
As the details of the deal trickle out, concessions offered by India to American farm goods have sparked concerns among farmers’ group such as Samyukt Kisan Morcha, which has vowed to organise protests over the coming days, including a strike on Feb 12.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which has long maintained that it will protect the interest of farmers in all trade pacts, has tried to assuage farmers’ fears over the interim trade deal the two nations agreed on after months of negotiations.
Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has repeatedly said that sensitive agricultural products such as dairy and poultry have been kept out of the trade talks, while no import concessions have been made for America’s genetically modified crops.
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Farmers, one of the most influential voting blocs in India, include millions of smallholders with less than two hectares (five acres) of land. They have proved powerful in the past in effecting political change. In 2021, Samyukt Kisan Morcha and other agriculture groups forced Modi’s government to scrap three contentious farm laws through a yearlong protest movement.
India was considering lowering duties on pecans, pulses and non-genetically modified soybeans, as well as dried distilled grains, a by-product of ethanol production used in animal feed, Bloomberg reported earlier. BLOOMBERG
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