Nationwide Protest on August 13: Workers and Farmers Oppose Tariff Threats

New Delhi: The Ten Central Trade Unions (CTUs) and the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) have jointly given a call for massive nationwide protests on August 13, 2025, in strong opposition to the tariff threats issued by US President Donald Trump and the pro-corporate India- UK Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA), signed recently by the Central Government.

The protest will raise the alarm over India’s growing subservience to Western imperialist powers, and demand the immediate withdrawal of all trade negotiations that compromise national sovereignty and people’s livelihood.

Terming Trump’s threat to impose 25% tariffs on Indian goods and a punitive tax on oil trade with Russia as an act of blatant economic coercion, CTUs and SKM said these moves are aimed at forcing India to abandon independent trade relations, especially with Russia. They demanded that the Indian government reject such threats outright and assert its sovereign right to engage in trade with any country, without foreign interference.

The joint statement strongly criticised the Central Government’s silence in the face of US bullying, describing it as a deliberate surrender to imperialist diktats. This subservience, they said, is now being formalised through backdoor trade agreements like the India- UK CETA, which the government is pushing ahead without parliamentary scrutiny or public consultation. The agreement, they warned, will allow British agri business corporations to flood Indian markets with cheap dairy, wheat, and meat, devastating the livelihoods of farmers and repeating the ruin caused by the India- ASEAN FTA in Kerala, where rubber prices collapsed by 70%.

CTUs and SKM also warned that CETA would enable large-scale corporate take overs in the healthcare sector, accelerating the privatisation of public hospitals and strengthening pharmaceutical monopolies. This will result in soaring medicine prices and inaccessibility of essential health services for ordinary people. The trade union and farmers’ platforms demanded that the government immediately halt all such secret trade negotiations, including the proposed India- US trade deal, which is expected to open India’s dairy and agricultural sectors to giant American corporations like Cargill, leading to a collapse in local prices and massive job losses.

Despite the successful nationwide strike held on July 9, 2025, by workers and farmers, the government has not reversed its anti-people policies. The joint statement reiterated opposition to the four anti-labour codes, continued denial of a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price at C2+50%, and refusal to provide farm loan waivers. They also condemned the ongoing assault on Jal, Jangal, Zameen, where corporate land grabs are being carried out under the false pretext of development, often by invoking colonial-era land laws.

The continued privatisation of Public Sector Undertakings and essential public services, the push to sell national assets, and the open promotion of foreign corporate interests were described as a betrayal of India’s democratic and economic foundations. The CTUs and SKM called upon workers, farmers, students, youth, and all democratic forces to rise in resistance and defend the country’s hard-won freedoms and economic self-reliance.

The August 13 protest, they said, will include tractor and motorcycle rallies, protest marches, public meetings, and other coordinated actions across the country. “The East India Company entered through trade and colonised India. Today, the same process is being repeated through CETA and U.S. trade deals. On August 13, the people of India will speak in one voice – Quit India, again,” the statement concluded.