Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday stepped up his criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over a potential Indo-US trade deal, alleging that Modi would “bow” to US President Donald Trump ahead of an impending tariff deadline.The Lok Sabha LoP’s comments came a day after Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said India would not enter into any agreement under externally imposed deadlines.”Piyush Goyal can beat his chest all he wants, mark my words, Modi will meekly bow to the Trump tariff deadline,” Gandhi said in a post on X.Trump had set a 9 July deadline for countries, including India, to finalise a trade deal, after which tariffs imposed in April — currently under a 90-day pause — are set to take effect.Notably, the Congress has criticised PM Modi over the tariff row as well as for remaining silent on Trump’s repeated claims of mediating a halt to India-Pakistan hostilities following the Pahalgam terror attack.Goyal had on Friday claimed that India would accept the proposed trade deal with the US only when it is fully finalised, and in the national interest.The Free Trade Agreements are possible only when both sides benefit and involve a win-win agreement, Goyal told reporters when asked about the proposed interim trade agreement with the US. “National interest should always be supreme. Keeping that in mind, if a deal is made, then India is always ready to deal with developed countries,” he said.Speaking to TNIE last month, commerce ministry sources had said that New Delhi is not desperate for an interim trade deal with the US before the July 9 deadline. They added that efforts are on for closure of a deal before the deadline, but reiterated that India will not compromise on its interest in order to finalise an early deal.On April 2, the US imposed an additional 26 percent reciprocal tariff on Indian goods but suspended it for 90 days. However, the 10 percent baseline tariff imposed by America remains in place.On June 26, Trump had hinted that a “very big” agreement with India could be next after wrapping up a trade deal with China. “We are having some great deals. We have one coming up, maybe with India. Very big one. Where we’re going to open up India,” he had said.A month earlier, the US President had claimed that India is willing to cut 100 percent tariffs on American goods, while saying that a trade deal between New Delhi and Washington is coming soon.Notably, India is seeking full exemption from the additional 26 percent tariff, while the US is demanding duty concessions in both agriculture and dairy sectors. But these segments are difficult and challenging areas for India to give duty concessions to the US as Indian farmers are into sustenance farming and have small land holdings.Therefore, these sectors are politically very sensitive.India has not opened up dairy sectors for any of its trading partners in any free trade pacts the country has signed so far.The US wants duty concessions on certain industrial goods, automobiles – especially electric vehicles, wines, petrochemical products, dairy, and agricultural items like apples, tree nuts, and genetically modified crops.India is seeking duty concessions for labour-intensive sectors like textiles, gems and jewellery, leather goods, garments, plastics, chemicals, shrimp, oil seeds, grapes, and bananas in the proposed trade pact.
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