Corn, ethanol among 4 red lines in India-US trade talks

Donald Trump has said his administration is going to sign "a very big" trade deal "to open up India", "where we are able to go in and compete (with) much less tariffs".

- HARISH DAMODARAN

UNITED STATES PRESIDENT

India has maintained that agriculture and dairy are its "red lines" in its ongoing negotiations with the US. "There's no way we could do anything that would weaken our agriculture, our farmers' positions," finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in an interview.

What are these "red lines" that the US is testing and driving a hard bargain to circumvent, if not remove? It basically reduces to four farm products: corn (maize), ethanol, soyabean and dairy. On these, India imposes both tariff and non-tariff restrictions, and the US is pushing for greater market access.

The first is corn The US is the world's biggest maize producer and exporter, with an estimated 377.6 million tonnes (mt) output, as against India's 42.3 mt, in 2024-25.

As much as 94% of the total area planted to corn in the US last year was under genetically modified (GM) varieties. These incorporate alien genes from bacteria that code for proteins enabling the crop to "tolerate" application of herbicides such as glyphosate and glufosinate or resist attacks by specific insect pests.

India charges 15% duty on maize imports of up to 0.5 mt annually, with quantities beyond that attracting a higher 50% rate. Moreover, it neither grows nor allows import of GM maize.