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According to US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the India-US trade deal did not happen because Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not call US President Donald Trump.
Speaking with venture capitalist and entrepreneur Chamath Palihapitiya on his ‘All In’ podcast on Thursday, Lutnick said he asked PM Modi to call Trump to close the deal. However, he said India was “inconvenient” to do so, “so Modi did not call”.
Lutnick said the US has made trade deals with Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam but he believes a trade deal with India will come before them.
“… We announced a number of deals with Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam. So we did all these deals… because we negotiated them and assumed India was going to do the deal before them, I negotiated them at a higher rate,” Lutnick said.
“So the problem now is that the deals have been done at a higher rate. And then India calls back and says, ‘Oh, okay, we are ready. I said, ready for that.”
India-US trade deal in limbo?
Lutnick’s comments come days after Trump said that PM Modi knew he was unhappy with India’s purchase of Russian oil and that Washington could increase tariffs on New Delhi “very quickly”.
The US President’s threat came at a time when Washington and New Delhi were preparing the contours of an India-US trade deal. So far six rounds of talks have taken place. The agreement includes a framework deal to resolve the 50% tariff on Indian goods entering the US.
50% to 500% – more US tariffs on India?
Meanwhile, Trump has greenlighted a bipartisan Russia sanctions bill that allows the US to impose tariffs of at least 500% on India, China and Brazil to curb their Russian oil imports.
“This bill would allow President Trump to punish countries that buy the cheap Russian oil that fuels Putin’s war machine,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham wrote on Twitter. He co-drafted the bill with Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal.
“This bill would give President Trump tremendous leverage against countries like China, India, and Brazil by encouraging them to stop buying the cheap Russian oil that provides financing for Putin’s genocide against Ukraine. I look forward to a strong bipartisan vote, hopefully early next week.”
