Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asserted that India will never compromise on the interests of its farmers, hours after US President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order slapping an additional 25% tariff on New Delhi over imports of oil from Russia.
"For us, the welfare of our farmers is the highest priority. India will never compromise on the interests of its farmers, livestock farmers, and fishermen," Prime Minister Modi told the MS Swaminathan Centenary International Conference at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (ICAR) in New Delhi.
"I know I will have to pay a heavy personal price for this. But I am ready for that," the Indian leader stated.
He said that India was "ready for its dairy farmers and fishermen".
The additional tariff against Indian imports entering the US is set to kick in from 27 August, according to the US order. The overall tariff against Indian imports stands at 50%, one of the highest in the world. The additional US tariffs against India were announced even as the two countries are involved in negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement (BTA), with the next round of talks set to take place in New Delhi in the last week of August.
The US side has been demanding that New Delhi opens up its agricultural and dairy sector for subsidised and Genetically Modified (GM) US imports, which has been a red line for India, where the agricultural sector employs almost half of the overall workforce and majority of farmers own small landholdings.
On Wednesday evening, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) rejected the US tariffs over India's purchases of Russian oil as "unfair, unjustified and unreasonable".
"We have already made clear our position on these issues, including the fact that our imports are based on market factors and done with the overall objective of ensuring the energy security of 1.4 billion people of India," MEA's Official Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement.
The MEA described it as "unfortunate" that the US singled out India for actions that several other nations were also taking in their "own national interest".
Meanwhile, the US President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday that Washington may impose more "secondary sanctions" on other countries importing Russian oil, while responding to a question on why they had singled out India.