US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick speaks while standing next to US President Donald Trump
Credit: Reuters Photo
The long-awaited India-US trade deal did not happen because Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not call US President Donald Trump, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said.
"Lets be clear, it's his (Trump's) deal. He is the closer. He does it. Its all set up, you got to have Modi call the President. They were uncomfortable doing it. So, Modi didn't call. That Friday left, in the next week we did Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam. We announced a whole bunch of deals," Lutnick said in an interview as part of the All-In Podcast.
In the interview, Lutnick explained why the deal has not materialised yet, and the staircase structure of rates they were negotiating with the countries. He said that after Modi did not call, the US went on with the staircase to do deals with Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia.
The US closed tariff negotiations with the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, and South Korea in July 2025.
India's exports to the US currently attract a 50 per cent tariff rate.
"Because we (the US) negotiated with them (India) and assumed that India is going to be done before them (other Asian countries) and negotiated with them at a higher rate. So now, the problem is that the deals came out at a higher rate, and then India calls back and says, 'Oh okay, we are ready'. I said, ready for what? You know, it was like three weeks later. I go, 'Are are you ready for the train that left the station three weeks ago?'" the US Commerce Secretary said.
Lutnick’s remarks came a few days after Trump said that Modi knew he was unhappy with India's purchases of Russian oil and that Washington could raise tariffs on New Delhi "very quickly".
The threat by the US President came at a time when the two countries were negotiating a bilateral trade agreement.
So far, six rounds of negotiations have been held for that. The pact includes a framework deal to resolve the 50 per cent tariffs on Indian goods entering America.