India rejects Trump admin's claim of offering trade to halt Indo-Pak conflict

US Commerce Secretary, Howard W Lutnick, said that Trump had used the offer of trade access to stop India and Pakistan, both armed with nuclear weapons, from going to a full-scale war earlier this year.

New Delhi: Even as President Donald Trump’s administration submitted an affidavit in a United States court claiming that it had used trade offers to broker a ceasefire between India and Pakistan earlier this month, New Delhi again stressed that the understanding to halt the cross-border offensives had been worked out bilaterally with Islamabad.

Trump’s Commerce Secretary, Howard W Lutnick, submitted before the Court of International Trade (CIT), a US federal court based in New York, that the 47th American President had used the offer of trade access to stop India and Pakistan, both armed with nuclear weapons, from going to a full-scale war earlier this year.

Lutnick was one of the four Trump Administration officials who had presented legal submissions before the CIT opposing two lawsuits filed to oppose the use of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) by the US president to impose sweeping tariffs on imports from several countries in the world.

The CIT is mandated to adjudicate matters related to the international trade and customs laws of the US.

Lutnick, in his submission to the CIT on May 23, defended Trump’s use of IEEPA, which allowed the president to impose economic restrictions during national emergencies, arguing that it signalled to foreign governments that predatory economic practices, trade manipulation, or trafficking of narcotics could trigger serious measures by the US.

“For example, India and Pakistan – two nuclear powers engaged in combat operations just 13 days ago – reached a tenuous ceasefire on May 10, 2025. This ceasefire was only achieved after President Trump interceded and offered both nations trading access with the United States to avert a full-scale war.

An adverse ruling that constrains presidential power in this case could lead India and Pakistan to question the validity of President Trump’s offer, threatening the security of an entire region and the lives of millions,” Lutnick stated in the submission to the three-judge bench of the CIT.

The CIT, however, rejected all arguments of the Trump Administration and ruled that the IEEPA of 1977 had not given the US president unilateral authority to impose tariffs on imports from other countries. It ruled that the US Constitution had given the American Congress powers to regulate trade with other nations.

“I hope you have seen the court order as well. Our position on this particular issue that you mentioned has been well articulated,” Randhir Jaiswal, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said in New Delhi.

“From the time Operation Sindoor commenced on 7th May till the understanding on cessation of firing and military action on 10th May, there were conversations between Indian and US leaders on the evolving military situation. The issue of trade or tariff did not come up in any of those discussions,” he told journalists, replying to a query on the US Commerce Secretary’s submission before the CIT.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar recently said that he, himself, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had received calls from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President J D Vance after Pakistan targeted civilians and military installations in India after the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force had carried out strikes targeting only the terrorist camps in the neighbouring country as well as the areas illegally occupied by it. But, he added, they only conveyed the US concerns over the cross-border flare-up, which had brought the two South Asian nations to the brink of war.

He also made clear that the cessation of firing was decided upon through direct contacts between India’s Director General of Military Operations and his counterpart in Pakistan on May 10.

Trump claimed credit for the ‘ceasefire’, which, according to him, had been brokered by his administration in order to prevent the death of millions of people in a “bad nuclear war” between India and Pakistan. New Delhi, however, dismissed the US president’s claim and stressed that the proposal for halting the cross-border offensives had come from Islamabad on May 10 after Pakistan’s airbases and other military installations had suffered severe damage due to missile and drone strikes by India.

Trump’s comment on May 12, however, indicated that it was the fear of a nuclear conflict in South Asia that prompted the US to step up its efforts to make India and Pakistan stop the cross-border military actions. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, however, said on the same day that no “nuclear blackmail” would henceforth thwart India’s strong response against cross-border terrorism being promoted by Pakistan.