‘One-sided’ deal will flood Indian markets with U.S. products, say MPs

The Opposition parties claimed in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday (February 10, 2026) that the India-U.S. interim trade deal was “one-sided” and would open up the Indian markets to the United States at the cost of farmers.

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Participating in a discussion on the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said it was not a “deal” but “dheel (concession)”. Mr. Yadav said the trade agreement was one-sided and it would hurt the farming community owing to agricultural imports from the U.S.

No clarity on oil purchase

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said the trade deal looked more like a “pre-committed purchase agreement” and alleged that Union Ministers S. Jaishankar and Piyush Goyal were playing “ping pong” when questions are posed. Another party MP Karti Chidambaram said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman must clarify from where India can buy crude oil from [owing to the U.S.’s curbs on oil purchase from Russia]. “Will these decisions be taken sovereignly in India or in the White House,” he asked.

Mr. Yadav said the India-U.S. interim trade agreement will damage the prospects of the industry and push back the ‘Made in India’ and ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India)’ initiatives of the government. He said the deal will flood Indian markets with U.S. agricultural products and the farmers will have nothing to grow in their fields.

The SP chief said the Union Budget was “directionless” and does not help in fulfilling the dreams of a developed India by 2047.

Mr. Tharoor, the MP from Thiruvananthapuram, said that at a time when India’s total bilateral trade with the U.S. stands at roughly $130 billion and the trade surplus is nearly $45 billion, the government has surprisingly promised to buy $500 billion worth of American goods over five years.

He said the government’s claim that India had secured a “better deal” than China, Vietnam, or other Asian economy does not withstand scrutiny as, though India may have obtained tariff reductions of one or two percentage points, no East Asian economy has agreed to deliberately dilute its trade surplus with the U.S. through guaranteed purchase commitments.

“No major economy has ever neutralised its own trade leverage in this manner. While the U.S. continues to impose import tariffs of up to 18% on Indian exports, we have committed ourselves to lower tariffs to near-zero levels, open agriculture, dilute data localisation, soften intellectual property safeguards, and even redirect strategic energy imports, especially away from Russia, to meet purchase targets.

Accusing the ruling party of practising “subscription-based federalism”, Trinamool Congress’ Abhishek Banerjee alleged that West Bengal was neglected in the Union Budget. The current government practises favouritism, he said.

“Akhilesh ji was speaking before me. He said he wanted to see what U.P. received in this Budget. The Finance Minister spoke for 85 minutes. Bengal was not even mentioned once,” he said.

‘Poor reeling under taxes’

Mr. Banerjee said the common man was reeling under taxes. “The Finance Minister appears to be practising the Robin Hood model in reverse. She drains the poor through taxation and inflation while rewarding the rich with concessions and privileges. Even a cup of tea comes with GST, but relief for the common man comes with conditions, clauses, terms, and regulations. This is not a simple tax regime. This is a maze where only the powerful know the exit, while the honest taxpayer keeps paying the fee.”

Mr. Karti Chidambaram said Ms. Sitharaman should clear doubts on India’s oil purchase since both Mr. Goyal and Mr. Jaishankar were pointing fingers at each other. “Are we allowed to buy oil from Russia, Iran? Are we obligated to buy oil from Venezuela,” he asked.

He said budgets were losing relevance, and noted that “if one sees the implementation of many missions announced earlier like AMRUT and National Nutrition Mission, one will be very distressed”. “I hope FM will recollect the schemes and give us a status report on each and every scheme.”

Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy said that out of all sectors, only defence had got a jump of 15% in allocation. Subsidy for food, fertilizer, and fuel had declined by 4.47%, he said.