New Delhi, Jan 9 (PTI) India on Friday rejected as “inaccurate” US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s remarks that a proposed trade deal between the two countries could not be sealed last year as Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not make a telephone call to President Donald Trump.
New Delhi also asserted that it remained interested in concluding a “mutually beneficial” trade deal between the two “complementary economies” and noted that Modi and Trump held phone conversations on eight occasions in 2025 covering different aspects of ties.
Negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement between the two sides hit a major roadblock after Trump slapped a whopping 50 per cent tariff on India, including a 25 per cent additional duty for its purchase of Russian crude oil.
The fresh row between the two sides came as their relations continued to reel under possibly the worst phase in the last two decades.
In his controversial comments in an interview on Thursday, Lutnick detailed how the India-US trade deal has not happened till now.
The decision to negotiate the trade deal was taken at a meeting between PM Modi and President Trump at the White House on February 13.
“We have seen the remarks. India and the US were committed to negotiating a bilateral trade agreement as far back as February 13 last year,” External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
“Since then, the two sides have held multiple rounds of negotiation to arrive at a balanced and mutually beneficial trade agreement,” he said at his weekly media briefing.
“On several occasions, we have been close to a deal. The characterisation of these discussions in the reported remarks is not accurate,” he added.
Jaiswal said India remained interested in a mutually beneficial trade deal between the two complementary economies, and it is looking forward to concluding it.
“Incidentally, the prime minister and President Trump have also spoken on the phone on eight occasions during 2025, covering different aspects of our wide-ranging partnership,” he said.
People familiar with the matter said there was no occasion in the course of last year when a phone call could have helped seal the trade pact.
In his comments, Lutnick said India and the US were pretty close to firming up the trade pact, as he elaborated on negotiations for a similar deal with the UK.
The US commerce secretary recalled that after the UK deal, everyone asked Trump which country would be the next, and the president talked about several countries, but he named “India a couple of times publicly”.
“And we were talking (with) India, and we told India, ‘You have three Fridays’. Well, they have to get it done,” he said.
Lutnick said while he would negotiate the contracts with the countries and set the whole deal up, “but let’s be clear, it’s his (Trump) deal. He is closer. He does the deal. So I said, ‘You got to have Modi, it’s all set up, you have to have Modi call the president. They (India) were uncomfortable doing it, so Modi didn’t call.” After that Friday, the US announced trade deals with Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, Lutnick said. The US had firmed up a number of trade pacts with several countries in July.
Apart from the tariff, the India-US ties are strained on a number of other issues that include Trump’s claim of ending the India-Pakistan conflict in May last year and Washington’s new immigration policy. PTI MPB NSD NSD
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