By Manoj Kumar and Sarita Chaganti Singh
(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 for it, in his first comments after U.S. President Donald Trump’s salvo of a 50% tariff on Indian goods.
Trump announced an additional 25% tariff on the South Asian nation on Thursday, taking the total levy on Indian goods being exported to the U.S. to 50% – among the highest levied on any U.S. trading partner.
“For us, our farmers’ welfare is supreme,” Modi said in a function 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.
Trade talks between India and the United States collapsed after five rounds of negotiations over disagreement on opening India’s vast farm and dairy sectors and stopping Russian oil purchases.
Modi did not directly refer to the U.S. tariffs or trade talks.
The new tariff, effective from Aug. 28, was to penalise India for its purchase of Russian oil, Trump has said. India’s foreign ministry has said the decision was “extremely unfortunate,” and that “India will take all necessary steps to protect its national interests.”
The U.S. is yet to announce any similar tariff for China, which is the biggest buyer of Russian oil. Experts have said China has been spared so far as it has a bargaining chip with the U.S. over its reserves of rare earth minerals and other such commodities, which India lacks.
“The U.S. tariff hike lacks logic,” Dammu Ravi, secretary of economic relations in India’s foreign ministry, told reporters.
“So 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 has started making moves to signal that it might have to consider other partnerships in the coming months in the face of Trump’s tariffs, which have led to the worst diplomatic showdown between the two countries in years.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is preparing for his first visit to China in over seven years, suggesting a potential realignment in alliances as relations with Washington fray.
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 on Thursday, and China’s Xi Jinping and other leaders. The BRICS group also includes Russia and South Africa.
Ravi said “like-minded countries will look for cooperation and economic engagement that will be mutually beneficial to all sides.”
(Reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar; editing by Sudipto Ganguly and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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