Proposed India-US trade deal serious threat to farmers, dairy, small industries: Balbir Sidhu

Terming the proposed India-US trade deal a serious threat to Punjab’s agrarian economy, dairy sector and small industries, Congress leader and former Punjab health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu on Thursday said farmers in the state are already struggling with rising input costs and declining incomes.

“Opening Indian markets to heavily subsidised American agricultural products will further depress crop prices and push small and marginal farmers into deeper distress,” Sidhu said, alleging that such trade policies “benefit large corporations, while ignoring the ground realities of agrarian states like Punjab”.

Expressing strong concern over the dairy sector, Sidhu said dairy farming provides daily income to lakhs of rural households in Punjab and acts as a backbone of the rural economy. “The opening of the dairy sector under the proposed agreement can result in large-scale imports of cheap milk powder and other dairy products, leading to a crash in procurement prices and weakening of the cooperative structure that sustains farmers,” he warned.