US lawmakers urge Trump to seek lower Indian tariffs on pulse crops in trade talks
New York/Washington (PTI): Two US lawmakers have urged President Donald Trump to push for favourable provisions for pulse crop in any future trade deal with India, saying American producers face a "significant competitive disadvantage" due to what they described as "unfair” tariffs imposed by New Delhi.
In a letter dated Jan 16 addressed to Trump, Republican Senators Steve Daines of Montana and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said their states are the top two producers of pulse crops, including peas, while India is the world's largest consumer, accounting for about 27 per cent of global consumption.
They noted that lentils, chickpeas, dried beans and peas are among the most commonly consumed pulse crops in India, but New Delhi has imposed substantial tariffs on American exports in these categories.
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The Senators pointed out that India announced on October 30 last year a 30 per cent tariff on yellow peas, which came into effect on November 1, 2025.
“As a result of the unfair Indian tariffs, US pulse crop producers face a significant competitive disadvantage when exporting their high-quality product to India,” the letter said.
Daines and Cramer said engaging Prime Minister Narendra Modi on pulse crop tariffs to enhance the economic cooperation between the two countries would be “mutually beneficial” for both American producers and Indian consumers.
Thanking Trump for his efforts to secure a favourable economic environment for agricultural producers in North Dakota and Montana, the Senators said that as trade negotiations move forward, they encourage him to seek favourable pulse crop provisions in any agreement the US signs with India.
They recalled that during Trump’s first term, they had raised the issue ahead of the 2020 trade negotiations with India, and that the President had “hand-delivered” their letter to Modi, which they said helped bring US producers to the negotiating table.
“As the United States looks to rebalance trade disparities, American farmers are ready to help fill the gap. They have tremendous capacity to feed and fuel the world if trade opportunities are unleashed,” the lawmakers said in the letter.
In their 2020 letter, written ahead of Trump's visit to India that year, the Senators had said that “unfair” Indian tariffs on pulse crops had substantially harmed US pulse crop producers, particularly after India was removed from the Generalised System of Preferences in June 2019, following which additional duties were imposed on American exports.
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Screenwriter Salim Khan on ventilator support and stable, say doctors
Mumbai (PTI): Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan suffered a brain haemorrhage which has been tackled, is on ventilator support as a safeguard and stable, doctors treating him said on Wednesday, a day after he was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here.
The 90-year-old, one half of the celebrated Salim-Javed duo which scripted films such as "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don" with Javed Akhtar, is in the ICU and recovery might take some time given his age.
"His blood pressure was high for which we treated him and we had to put him on a ventilator because we wanted to do certain investigations. Now the ventilator was put as a safeguard so that his situation doesn't get worse. So it is not that he is critical," Dr Jalil Parkar told reporters.
"We did the investigations that were required and today we have done a small procedure on him, I will not go into the details. The procedure done is called DSA (digital subtraction angiography). The procedure has been accomplished, he is fine and stable and shifted back to ICU. By tomorrow, we hope to get him off the ventilator. All in all, he is doing quite well," he added.
Asked whether he suffered a brain haemorrhage, the doctor said, "Unko thoda haemorrhage hua tha, which we’ve tackled. No surgery is required.
As concern over Khan's health mounted, his children, including superstar Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan, daughter Alvira, and sons-in-law Atul Agnihotri and Aayush Sharma, have been seen outside the hospital along with other well-wishers. His long-time partner Akhtar was also seen coming out of the hospital.
Khan, a household name in the 70s and 80s, turned 90 on November 24 last year. It was the day Dharmendra, the star of many of his films, including "Sholay", "Seeta aur Geeta" and "Yaadon Ki Baraat", passed away.
Hailing from an affluent family in Indore, Khan arrived in Mumbai in his 20s with dreams of stardom. He was good looking and confident he would make a mark in the industry as an actor. But that did not happen. And then, after struggling for close to a decade and getting confined to small roles in films, he changed lanes.
He worked as an assistant to Abrar Alvi and soon met Akhtar to form one of Hindi cinema's most formidable writing partnerships. They worked together on two dozen movies with most of them achieving blockbuster status.
Other than "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don", Khan and Akhtar also penned "Trishul", "Zanjeer", "Seeta Aur Geeta", "Haathi Mere Saathi", "Yaadon Ki Baarat" and "Mr India".
