Indo-US Trade Deal: Strategy or Surrender?

On February 2nd, Trump announced a trade deal with India via a social media post, with no signed agreement, no formal text. Trump says India has committed to stop buying Russian oil, purchase $500 billion in American goods, and grant zero-tariff access while the US merely reduces tariffs from 50% to 18%. India is quiet on specifics. Host Anirban Chowdhury examines this imbalanced framework with International Trade Policy and WTO Expert Abhijit Das and Edward Alden, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Subsidized US agriculture threatens Indian farmers, pharmaceutical patent pressures undermine generic drug makers, and Trump's emergency powers bypass Congress entirely. Unlike India's comprehensive EU FTA, this deal has no legal enforceability and can be renegotiated through Trump's next social media post.

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