New Delhi: The interim trade agreement still being worked out between the US and India has US saying it will reduce its tariffs on Indian products, below the 50% slapped on it last year by President Trump, the highest in the world. But the United States has secured “far-reaching commitments from India on agriculture, regulation, digital policy, security alignment, and large-scale purchasing concessions that go well beyond trade,” according to Delhi based think-tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), The think-tank finds repercussions of the concessions India has made to have an impact on basic decisions that India should take on its own terms. It risks endangering BRICS as well as tying it down to priorities like “US sanctions and geopolitical priorities” as well as the US’ economic security, in exchange for autonomy on its own decisions.GTRI’s analysis of the joint statement on India-US interim trade deal issued first by the White House and then by the government of India has concluded that the US has “traded relief from its unsustainable and illegal reciprocal tariffs for permanent market access gains in India.”GTRI, which had analysed the far-reaching impact of the high tariffs announced by Trump on India’s labour-intensive industries has found that “more consequential are the non-tariff and strategic concessions embedded in the framework. India has agreed to align more closely with the US on economic security, potentially constraining its freedom to trade with third countries and tying its policies to US sanctions and geopolitical priorities.” This, it concludes, “will likely strain its relations with BRICs countries. Commitments on non-tariff barriers and standards risk subordinating India’s domestic regulatory regime – in agriculture, health, and digital trade – to U.S. preferences, mirroring one-sided concessions Washington has extracted from smaller economies like Malaysia.”Incidentally, PM Modi is currently winding up a trip to Malaysia. Ajay Srivastava, the founder of GTRI is also reported to have said the interim framework is indicative of an “unequal exchange” between India and the United States.GTRI finds India’s promise to buy $500 billion worth of US goods over five years – far in excess of doubling its imports currently from the US – implausible, more so as major purchases like aircraft are decisions by the private sector. “Aircraft purchases are presented as a major component of this commitment. At present, India operates around 200 Boeing aircraft. Even if India were to add another 200 Boeing aircraft over the next five years, at an estimated cost of $ 300 million per aircraft, the total value would be about $ 60 billion. Moreover, such purchasing decisions are made by private airlines, not by the government, further raising questions about the feasibility of meeting this commitment,” Srivastava has said.Bloomberg’s Menaka Doshi writes of the agreement, “I’m a big fan of Keigo Higashino. The India-US interim trade agreement reads like something the acclaimed Japanese mystery novelist could have written — with its slow-burning reveal of machinations between the two countries and their muscular leaders. The latest chapter suggests a capitulation by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi as last year’s deal breakers turn into 2026’s deal makers.”Indian Union minister for commerce and industry, Piyush Goyal has conceded that United States “where labour costs 50 times than India, whose per capita is $90,000 versus India’s $3000, there is certainly no competition” between the US and India, suggesting India has negotiated from a position of having no better options than what were presumably offered by the United States. Terming it a “complimentary” relationship, the minister said it was a “big win for India”.