NEW DELHI — India and the United States have unveiled an interim framework for an India-US trade pact in Washington Friday that resets tariffs and opens limited market access for selected industrial and agricultural goods. The reset is meant to cool a months-long tariff standoff while leaning on quotas and minimum import prices to protect politically sensitive farm segments, Feb. 6, 2026.
The India-US trade pact is still a framework — with product-by-product schedules and legal text expected later — but early signals suggest a carefully calibrated farm package: cheaper feed inputs for poultry and livestock on one side, and guardrails for Indian apple and cotton farmers on the other.
India-US trade pact: tariff reset and what’s changing
At the center of the India-US trade pact is a reciprocal tariff reset. The U.S. will apply an 18% reciprocal tariff rate on Indian-origin goods under its existing executive orders, while keeping a pathway to remove reciprocal tariffs on a wide range of Indian exports once the interim agreement is successfully concluded, according to a White House joint statement.
India, in turn, has committed to eliminate or reduce tariffs on all U.S. industrial goods and a defined set of U.S. food and agricultural products — including dried distillers’ grains (DDGs), red sorghum for animal feed, tree nuts, fresh and processed fruit, soybean oil, and wine and spirits — while both sides continue talks toward a broader bilateral trade agreement. A Reuters summary of the interim framework said the roadmap also includes work on non-tariff barriers, rules of origin, and standards recognition timelines.
Winners on paper: poultry and livestock feed users (via DDGS and sorghum), some exporters, and Indian textile value chains reliant on specialty cotton inputs.
Pressure points: oilseed and soy value chains (via DDGS and soybean oil competition) and farm groups wary of future “additional products” in the fine print.
India-US trade pact and poultry feed: DDGS gets a limited window
One of the most immediate, practical channels in the India-US trade pact runs through feed costs. DDGS — a high-protein byproduct of ethanol production widely used in animal feed — can substitute more expensive feed ingredients, and feed costs are a dominant driver of poultry profitability. A Reuters breakdown of farm-sector winners and losers noted that higher DDGS supplies could help India’s roughly $30 billion poultry sector, where feed can account for about 60%-70% of total production costs.
To blunt fears of a sudden import surge, the government has emphasized a cap. The Commerce Ministry has said the first-phase quota for U.S. DDGS in the interim framework is fixed at 5 lakh tonnes — about 1% of total feed consumption — a limit designed to stabilize supply without swamping domestic producers, according to a Financial Express report citing ministry officials.
Even with a cap, the India-US trade pact could reshape competition inside India’s protein-feed market. Larger DDGS inflows can soften demand for oilmeals such as soyameal — a key byproduct supporting oilseed economics — which is why soybean growers and processors are watching the details closely.
India-US trade pact safeguards: apples and cotton get guardrails
While poultry feed looks set for a cost tailwind, the India-US trade pact also tries to signal “farm protection” through built-in brakes for two politically sensitive categories: apples and cotton.
Apples: concessional duty plus a minimum import price
Apple growers have been among the most vocal critics of any U.S. market opening, arguing that subsidized imports could undercut domestic prices in key producing regions. Under the framework, U.S. apples will be allowed at a concessional duty of 25%, but with a minimum import price of 80 rupees per kilogram — a structure that, in practice, is intended to block very low-priced shipments and reduce the risk of a sudden price shock for local orchards, according to the Reuters breakdown of farm-sector winners and losers.
India is also a large apple importer overall, with supplies coming from multiple countries, so policymakers are trying to balance consumer demand with orchard economics — a familiar tightrope in this India-US trade pact.
Cotton: extra-long staple imports under quota
Cotton politics can be as sensitive as food grains, but the framework points to a narrow lane: duty-free imports focused on extra-long staple cotton, and only under a quota. India currently levies an 11% duty on cotton imports; the expectation is that limiting concessions to extra-long staple grades — which India’s textile industry often imports anyway — will keep broader domestic price impacts contained, the Reuters breakdown of farm-sector winners and losers reported.
In other words, the India-US trade pact appears to be aiming for “input relief” for higher-end textile manufacturing while keeping mass-market cotton growers insulated from a broad import wave.
India-US trade pact faces political pushback
Even with quotas and price floors, the India-US trade pact has triggered a backlash from farm unions and opposition parties, who say any incremental opening could still tilt the playing field toward heavily subsidized U.S. agriculture. Reuters reported that farm groups have called for nationwide protests Feb. 12 and have demanded that the government release detailed product lists and tariff lines, pointing to fears of import surges and rural income pressure. The report also noted that farmer leaders warned India could become a “dumping ground” if safeguards prove weak in practice, citing what they see as an uneven contest between U.S. and Indian producers. See Reuters coverage of the protest call.
Government officials have countered that the India-US trade pact keeps politically explosive staples — such as major cereals and dairy — outside any tariff concessions in the first phase, and that “limited access” items are being paired with guardrails. The disagreement now shifts to transparency: what, exactly, sits inside “additional products,” how tariff-rate quotas will be administered, and what enforcement tools will be used if import volumes spike.
How we got here: from 2019 retaliation to today’s India-US trade pact
2019: India imposed retaliatory tariffs on 28 U.S. products — including almonds, apples and walnuts — after the U.S. withdrew India’s trade privileges under the Generalized System of Preferences, Reuters reported at the time. (See Reuters’ June 2019 report.)
2021: The two sides revived high-level engagement through the Trade Policy Forum, committing to working groups and targeted progress on market access and standards issues. (See the USTR’s Trade Policy Forum joint statement.)
2023: India withdrew additional retaliatory duties on some U.S.-origin products, including apples, walnuts and almonds, while maintaining baseline MFN rates; the government also pointed to a minimum import price mechanism for apples to deter predatory pricing. (See the Press Information Bureau release.)
Seen in that longer arc, the India-US trade pact looks less like a one-off concession and more like the latest phase in a stop-start effort to lower headline trade barriers while managing domestic political risk.
What to watch next
For businesses and farmers, the biggest uncertainty in the India-US trade pact is implementation: tariff-rate quota volumes, eligibility rules, enforcement of minimum import prices, and the handling of non-tariff barriers. In the coming weeks, attention will likely focus on:
Fine print: the full tariff-line schedule and any “additional products” beyond the headline list.
Guardrails: quota allocation, monitoring, and snapback options if imports surge.
Politics: whether farm protests widen — and how transparently the government publishes deal text.
Sector spillovers: whether DDGS and soybean oil concessions squeeze oilseed prices, even as feed users benefit.
If the framework holds, the India-US trade pact could deliver near-term relief to feed-intensive sectors while keeping the most politically sensitive farm lines largely ring-fenced. But for India’s farm economy, the real test will be less about headlines — and more about quotas, compliance and how quickly “limited access” expands in later round
