India-U.S. trade deal didn’t happen because Modi did not call Trump: Lutnick

WASHINGTON : U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said the trade deal with India did not happen because Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi did not call U.S. President Donald Trump.

Mr. Lutnick’s remarks came a few days after Mr. Trump said that Mr. 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 U.S. 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% tariffs on Indian goods entering America.

“It’s all set up and you have got to have Modi call the President. And they were uncomfortable doing it,” Lutnick said in an interview on the All-In podcast, a U.S. show by four venture capitalists that focuses on business and technology.

“So Modi didn’t call.” Responding to Lutnick’s remarks, India’s foreign ministry said the “characterisation of these discussions in the reported remarks is not accurate.”
The two nations have been close to a deal on several occasions since the agreement to negotiate in February last year, Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters at a media briefing on Friday.

“We did Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and we announced a whole bunch of deals. So we did this whole bunch of deals because we negotiated them and assumed India was going to be done before them. I have negotiated 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.”

“Incidentally, Prime Minister and President Trump have also spoken on phone on eight occasions during 2025, covering different aspects of our wide-ranging partnership.”
Lutnick’s comments came after Trump stepped up the pressure for talks with a warning this week that tariffs could rise further unless India curbs its Russian oil imports.
The failure to reach a deal has pushed the Indian rupee to a record low and spooked investors waiting for progress in two-way negotiations.
India is still seeking a tariff rate between Washington’s offers to Britain and Vietnam that had formerly been agreed but the offer has expired, Lutnick added.
India’s trade ministry did not respond to an e-mailed request for comment on Lutnick’s remarks.
New Delhi and Washington were very close to a trade deal last year but a communication breakdown led to the collapse of any potential pact, Reuters reported.

It cited an Indian government official involved in the talks as saying that Modi could not have called Trump, for fear that a one-sided conversation would put him on the spot.