NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday he will not compromise the interests of the country’s farmers even if he has to pay a heavy price, in his first comments after U.S. President Donald Trump’s salvo of a 50% tariff on Indian goods.
“For us, our farmers’ welfare is supreme,” Modi said at an event in New Delhi. “India will never compromise on the wellbeing of its farmers, dairy (sector) and fishermen. And I know personally I will have to pay a heavy price for it,” he said.
Trump announced an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods on Wednesday, raising the total duty to 50% — among the highest imposed on any U.S. trading partner. The new tariff, effective August 28, is meant to penalize India for continuing to buy Russian oil, Trump has said.
While Modi did not explicitly mention the U.S. or the collapsed trade talks, his comments marked a clear defense of India’s position.
Trade talks between India and the United States broke down after five rounds of negotiations over disagreement on opening India’s vast farm and dairy sectors and stopping Russian oil purchases.
India’s foreign ministry has called the U.S. decision “extremely unfortunate” and said it would “take all necessary steps to protect its national interests.”
The U.S. has yet to impose similar tariffs for China, the biggest buyer of Russian oil. Experts say China’s dominance in rare earth minerals — critical to high-tech industries — gives it leverage that India currently lacks.
“The U.S. tariff hike lacks logic,” Dammu Ravi, secretary of economic relations in India’s foreign ministry, told reporters.
“This is a temporary aberration, a temporary problem that the country will face, but in course of time, we are confident that the world will find solutions.”
India is already signalling it may seek to rebalance its global partnerships. Modi is preparing for his first visit to China in over seven years, suggesting a potential diplomatic realignment amid growing tensions with Washington.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Wednesday he would initiate a conversation among the BRICS group of developing nations about how to tackle Trump’s tariffs.
He said he planned to call Modi and China’s Xi Jinping. The BRICS group also includes Russia and South Africa.
India’s Ravi added that “like-minded countries will look for cooperation and economic engagement that will be mutually beneficial to all sides.”
MODI FACES MOUNTING DOMESTIC PRESSURE
Both supporters of Modi and the opposition Congress party have called on him to respond firmly to the U.S. tariffs, urging action “with self-respect and dignity.”
“India’s national interest is supreme. Any nation that arbitrarily penalizes India for its time-tested policy of strategic autonomy, rooted in the ideology of non-alignment, does not understand the steel frame India is made of,” Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge said.
Indian industry, already struggling with global headwinds, has expressed alarm.
Sudhir Sekhri, chairman of the Apparel Export Promotion Council, said: “There is no way the industry can absorb such a steep hike”. He demanded fiscal support from the government.
Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries in its annual report said continuing geopolitical and tariff-related uncertainties may affect trade flows and demand-supply balance.
India’s equity market, which has been weakening due to tariff risks and muted earnings growth slipped another 0.5% on Thursday to three-month lows. The reaction was muted as investors bet on the tariffs being negotiated down.
(Reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar, Manoj Kumar Sarita Chaganti Singh, Nikunj Ohri in New Delhi; editing by Sudipto Ganguly and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
