The India-United States trade deal was not finalised since Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not call President Donald Trump, claimed US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick during a podcast.
“I set the deal up, but you had to have Modi call President Trump. But they (India) were hesitant and Modi did not call,” Lutnik said during an interview with told All-In Podcast.
The Commerce Secretary said that he assumed that the India deal was going to be done before Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, and negotiated with them more. “And then, India calls back and says, ‘Oh, okay. We, we’re ready.’ I said, ‘Ready for what?’ You know, it was like three weeks later. I go, ‘Are you ready for the train that left the station three weeks ago?,'” Lutnic said.
“And they remember, and I remember, and they say, ‘but you agreed’. And I said, ‘then, not now, then’. So that’s the problem. India will work it out, but there’s a lot of countries and they each have their own deep internal politics, and to get something approved by their Parliament… these are deeply complex things,” he added.
Trump threatens to impose 500 per cent tariff
According to reports, India and the US have been negotiating the proposed bilateral trade agreement since March 2025. So far, the two countries have held six rounds of negotiations.
The Trump administration has imposed 50 per cent tariffs on India, including 25 per cent for Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil, among the highest imposed on any country in the world. India has described the US action as “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable.”
Recently, the Trump administration threatened to impose 500 per cent tariff on countries buying oil from Russia, with US senator Lindsey Graham saying that President Donald Trump has “greenlit” the Russia Sanctions Bill.
The bill titled Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025, enables the US administration to impose tariffs and secondary sanctions on countries buying Russian oil, gas, uranium, etc. “The President must increase the rate of duty on all goods and services imported from Russia into the United States to at least 500 per cent relative to the value of such goods and services,” the Bill stated.
A version of the Bill released in 2025 had the provision for the President to “waive the 500 per cent tariffs for a period of up to 180 days with respect to a country, goods or service if he determines it is in the national interest of the United States.”
The US remained India’s largest trading partner for the fourth consecutive year in 2024-25, with bilateral trade valued at USD 131.84 billion. The US accounts for about 18 per cent of India’s total goods exports, 6.22 per cent of its imports and 10.73 per cent of its total merchandise trade.
According to exporters, the agreement is significant as India’s merchandise exports to the US declined for the second consecutive month in October, falling by 8.58 per cent to USD 6.3 billion due to the hefty tariffs imposed by Washington.
Congress slams Modi
The Congress slammed Prime Minister Modi, stating that India missed out on a trade deal with the US due to a lack of direct engagement at the leadership level.
Congress MP Jairam Ramesh shared Lutnick’s video on X with a dig at the Prime Minister. “Hug hug na raha, post post na raha… Kya se kya ho gaya, bewafa teri dosti mein,” he tweeted, mocking a decline in the relationship between the two countries.
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