MEA calls Howard Lutnick's remarks on India-US trade deal delay inaccurate
MEA calls Howard Lutnick's remarks on India-US trade deal delay inaccurate
M.U.H
10/01/202636
India on Friday rejected as “not accurate” remarks by US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick that a proposed bilateral trade deal failed to materialise last year because Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not place a telephone call to US President Donald Trump, marking one of New Delhi’s strongest responses to comments by a senior American official in recent months.
At his weekly media briefing, Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), said the two countries had “on several occasions been close to a deal,” signalling that responsibility for the impasse did not rest solely with New Delhi, as suggested by Lutnick in comments made during an interview on Thursday (India time).
Jaiswal added that “Prime Minister Modi and President Trump have also spoken on phone on eight occasions during 2025, covering different aspects of our wide-ranging partnership.”
People familiar with the negotiations said India had concerns about opening up its farm sector, citing potential implications for farmers’ livelihoods, and said there was no juncture last year at which a phone call would have clinched the agreement.
India reiterated that it had been “committed to negotiating a bilateral trade with the US as far back as February 13, 2025,” and that “since then the two sides have held multiple rounds of negotiation to arrive at a balanced and mutually beneficial trade agreement.” The decision to pursue talks was taken at a meeting between Modi and Trump at the White House on February 13. “We have seen the remarks,” Jaiswal said. “India and the US were committed to negotiating a bilateral trade agreement as far back as February 13 last year.”
“Since then, the two sides have held multiple rounds of negotiation to arrive at a balanced and mutually beneficial trade agreement. On several occasions, we have been close to a deal. The characterisation of these discussions in the reported remarks is not accurate.” He said India remained interested in concluding a mutually beneficial agreement between the two complementary economies.
New Delhi has avoided a public exchange with the Trump administration since May, including over Trump’s claims of credit for the India-Pakistan ceasefire following Operation Sindoor and comments related to the trade talks. Indian officials have said the bilateral relationship spans multiple sectors, including cooperation in several strategic areas, and is underpinned by a large Indian diaspora in the US, factors they say should temper simplified assessments of ties.
In an interview on the All-In podcast on Thursday, Lutnick said Modi needed to call Trump for the trade deal to proceed. “It’s all set up. You have to have Modi call the President. They were uncomfortable doing it, so Modi didn’t call,” he said.
Lutnick said the UK was the first country to finalise a trade agreement with the US in May, after which the Trump administration adopted what he described as a “staircase” approach, under which countries that moved earlier secured more favourable terms. India, he said, was given a deadline and expected to take a political call, including a call from Modi to Trump. Meanwhile, Washington concluded agreements with other Asian countries at higher tariff rates.
“We did Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. We announced a whole bunch of deals in Asia. Because we negotiated them and assumed India was going to be done before them; I negotiated them at a higher rate,” Lutnick said. “So now the problem is the deals came out at a higher rate and then India calls back and says we were ready… Are you ready for the train that left the station three weeks ago?”
Although India was the first country to initiate trade talks with the US in March, uncertainty over finalising an agreement has persisted. Washington concluded a trade deal with Britain in May, followed by agreements with countries including the Philippines and Vietnam in July.
Trade talks between India and the US came close to completion before stalling around July last year. In August, Trump imposed a 50 per cent tariff on several Indian goods, including a 25 per cent punitive duty for India’s purchases of Russian oil.
The two sides have been working toward a broad bilateral trade agreement, as well as a more limited framework deal aimed at easing the impact of the 50 per cent tariffs on Indian exporters. Both missed a 2025 “fall” deadline for the framework agreement despite more than six rounds of negotiations. Officials have cited India’s reluctance to halt purchases of Russian crude, US demands related to India’s sensitive agricultural sectors, and disagreements over reciprocal tariff rates.
