Jairam Ramesh
NEW DELHI: Dubbing the India-US trade deal interim framework as a “surrender”, Congress on Saturday said commerce minister Piyush Goyal’s statement on agri imports was “too clever by half” as the joint statement mentions a list of products which India would eliminate or reduce tariffs upon, including “additional products”.Congress MP Jairam Ramesh noted “additional products” were not specified, that the category was “too open-ended and shows that something is being hidden”. He said there would be concerns when more details came to light.Former finance minister P Chidambaram said India and the US had not reached any trade agreement and this wasn’t even an interim agreement, but “framework of an interim agreement”.”One thing is clear: The framework deal is heavily tilted in favour of the US and the asymmetry is obvious,” Chidambaram said.Congress spokesman Pawan Khera alleged the deal would break farmers’ backs in the future.
