“Not a win, but a ‘coerced concession’: Jairam Ramesh slams Indo-US trade deal claims

New Delhi: Congress General Secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday launched a blistering attack on the government’s handling of the newly disclosed India-US trade deal, saying that Washington’s own interpretation of the agreement has blown apart the “propaganda” being put out by the Centre.

In a post on X, Ramesh said it “did not take long for President Trump and his team to puncture the tall claims being made by the PM and his many megaphones.” He claimed the United States’ understanding of the pact was “very different from the propaganda that is being put out by the Modi Govt.” Ramesh dismissed the deal as “not a calibrated opening but a coerced opening,” arguing that “India has been forced to concede more than what it has got.”

Ramesh also took aim at the government’s assertions about textile exports, saying India’s “much-touted advantage over Bangladesh in textile exports to the US has vanished” with details of a separate US-Bangladesh trade agreement becoming public. This, he said, undermines India’s competitive edge in a key export sector at a time when global market share is fiercely contested.


The sharp critique comes as both New Delhi and Washington this week elaborated the contours of a framework interim trade agreement aimed at deepening economic ties between the world’s two large democracies while lowering longstanding barriers in goods and agricultural sectors.

According to a White House fact sheet, the deal is being crafted to ensure that “only Indian and American products get the benefits,” with tighter rules of origin and reciprocal market access to prevent the re-routing of goods from third countries.

Under the deal’s terms, the United States will apply a reciprocal tariff rate of around 18% on most Indian goods a reduction from the much higher tariffs previously in place while India has agreed to cut or eliminate duties on a broad range of American industrial and agricultural products. Both sides have also agreed to work on regulatory cooperation, digital trade rules and reducing non-tariff barriers that hamper bilateral commerce.

The agreement also envisions elevated purchases of U.S. products by India across sectors such as energy, technology and machinery, with India’s potential import commitments projected at up to $500 billion over the next five years a figure New Delhi has described as aspirational rather than legally binding.

The interim deal follows months of negotiation and is seen by officials on both sides as a key building block toward a fuller Bilateral Trade Agreement that could reshape commercial ties and ease long-standing irritants such as high tariffs on certain goods. The White House has described the understanding as a “historic step” in expanding trade and strengthening supply chains between the two countries.