Goyal Says US Trade Deal Will Protect Indian Farmers

India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said the proposed trade agreement with the United States would protect sensitive interests of Indian farmers and other stakeholders, and give India a strong comparative advantage once its terms are public. Goyal made the remarks on Thursday at the Fourth National Conference on India’s Industrial Transformation in New Delhi. He said the public would see that no sensitive interests had been compromised, while the agreement’s full details were not yet available. The comments come as the two countries negotiate a trade pact. India and the United States announced a framework in February, but had not signed the agreement, according to one account. Goyal’s assurance concerns the proposed deal’s eventual terms, not a published final text. The Samyukt Kisan Morcha, a coalition of more than 100 farm groups, has opposed the agreement. It alleged that the deal would eliminate India’s high tariffs on products including maize, almonds, walnuts, apples and soybean oil, and said farmers were being put for sale. Those claims have not been assessed against the agreement’s terms, which have not been made public. Farm groups have also expressed concern that...