How India turned the dining tables on the US

US President Donald Trump warned that he might introduce new tariffs on agricultural imports, especially on rice from India. The accusation was that India, the world’s largest rice exporter, was dumping the grain in the US. It is quite a story of tables being turned as the US supplied India with substandard wheat in the 1960s when the country was looking for food aid to feed millions of hungry mouths. The allegations of rice dumping come even as the US and India are negotiating a trade deal, which experts say is stuck because India has drawn a red line on agriculture and dairy imports. While the US claims India’s farm sector is subsidised, it, in fact, is the other way around. Trump’s threats of tariffs on rice from India over dumping came as he unveiled a $12-billion bailout package for American farmers. Dumping refers to countries selling their surplus produce or products for ridiculously low prices, thereby threatening the importing country. That India could be dumping rice is ...