Protests Against India Visit of USA Vice President JD Vance

AIKS called upon all its units across India to hold mass demonstrations and effigy burning with the slogan “Vance Go Back! India Is Not For Sale” in villages and district headquarters on 21st April 2025 when the US Vice President J.D Vance arrived in India even as negotiations are on for a bilateral trade deal.

The Indian Prime Minister has capitulated to the dictates of the US President Donald Trump and is going ahead with plans to ease tariff and non-tariff barriers for US products including farm products. Howard Lutnick, the US Commerce Secretary asserted that India should open its agriculture market and agriculture cannot be ‘off the table’ in the negotiations for the Bilateral Trade Agreement.

The Bilateral Trade Agreement under discussion will be the death-knell of dairy farmers as the US Dairy exports to India will make a quantum jump if tariffs and market restrictions are lifted. The US Wheat Associates claim that India has high levels of domestic support and trade distorting high tariffs; ironically this is while the peasantry in India are on the struggle path for remunerative Minimum Support Price with legally guaranteed procurement. Similarly, in the case of Maize, there is a push to remove India’s import prohibition on genetically modified maize as well on ethanol with expectation of windfall gains for the USA. Soybean, almond, pistachio, walnut, apple and horticultural crops are all up for negotiation at the behest of US based Commodity Cartels. Even as Indian cotton farmers are already in an acute crisis and committing suicide and there is a continuous steady decline in annual cotton production from 37 million bales (170 kg each) in 2017-18 to 34.7 million bales in 2022-23 and estimated further decline to 31.6 million bales in 2023-24, the heightened negotiations for withdrawing tariffs is extremely insensitive.

A Mission 500 aiming to double total trade to $500 billion by 2030 is in the offing according to news reports. The on-going trade negotiation is a deliberate move so that cheaper cotton, soybean, maize, apple etc. from the USA can be dumped in India, literally swamping the market. This will lead to a price crash for Indian farmers. All negotiations are being done without taking State Governments or the Parliament into confidence. Such Agreements also do not assure the implementation of International Labour Standards.

While countries like China, Canada, Mexico etc., made a resolute push-back against Trump’s tariffs and rallied to defend their economic interests, India has chosen to capitulate and surrender its national interests. Notably, Canada and Mexico with more than 70 percent of exports to the USA did not blink an eye before hitting back, while India with nearly 18 percent exports to the USA is refusing to stand up against the strong-arm tactics of the USA. Apart from agriculture, the interests of the MSMEs across sectors like generic pharmaceuticals to auto parts and millions of workers across these sectors are also going to be adversely hit.

The Vice President of USA J.D.Vance’s visit to India is part of putting pressure upon the State of India and the corporate led ruling classes to surrender the national interests to facilitate windfall profiteering to the Multinational companies.