US President Donald Trump’s tough tariff stance on India now appears to have been influenced by factors beyond trade policy. According to a senior US official, the sticking point was that Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not personally reach out to Trump to finalise the long-pending India-US trade deal. India ended up taking the heat for that silence. Tariffs on Indian goods climbed to a massive 50 percent, and there are signs that more duties could still be added.
US Commerce Secretary reveals what went wrong between India-US
Speaking about the differences on the ALL IN podcast, Lutnick made it clear that Trump sees trade deals as personal negotiations. “Let’s be clear, it’s his deal. He’s the closer. He does the deal,” Lutnick said. He added that the setup was ready and that Trump expected a direct call from Modi. “You’ve got to have Modi. It’s all set up. You have to have Modi,” he said, claiming that there was discomfort on the Indian side. “So Modi didn’t call,” Lutnick said.
Lutnick admitted that Washington had expected India’s deal to be finalised before countries like Vietnam and Indonesia, which were earlier behind India in the trade-deal queue. Instead, the US went ahead and struck agreements with those countries first.
Lutnick also suggested that the terms under which India and the US were close to signing a deal earlier no longer exist. “The US has stepped back from that trade deal that we had agreed to earlier,” he said. “We are not thinking about it anymore.” He continued, “India remembers the deal we agreed to. I remember it. They tell me you agreed to this deal. I told them I agreed then. Not now”
On Thursday, Trump approved a bill that could impose tariffs of at least 500 percent on countries that continue buying Russian oil. The aim of the move, according to US officials, is to punish those countries and pressure them into cutting ties with Moscow.
Trump says ‘PM Modi not happy with him’
Earlier this week, Trump said Modi was “not that happy with me” because the US imposed tariffs on India’s purchase of Russian oil. A 25 percent penalty pushed total tariffs on India to 50 percent. When Trump claimed that Modi came to him saying, “Sir, may I see you please,” the Indian government chose not to respond officially, at least for now.
Trump also claimed that India had been waiting five years for Apache helicopters and said the US was changing the situation. He stated that India had ordered 68 Apache helicopters. Indian government sources strongly rejected this claim. They said India bought only 28 Apache helicopters, 22 for the Indian Air Force and six for the Indian Army, and that all of them have already been delivered.
Despite growing political pressure to respond to Trump’s remarks, India’s diplomatic establishment has advised restraint, according to a report from The Indian Express. Officials believe reacting would be counter-productive, especially when trade talks are still ongoing.
“There is no need for a ball-by-ball commentary on what the US President is saying,” a source told The Indian Express. “Our focus should remain on trade negotiations.”