Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who is one of the Trump administration’s key trade negotiators, has urged India to trust the US President Donald Trump, saying he will take care of India’s interests. Lutnick, who is the lead US trade negotiator with India and a close adviser to President Trump, also expressed optimism about a deal with India soon.
“The President thinks of America first, but he does not think of America only or America exclusively,” he said at the annual summit of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF).
“First, he’s got to take care of home so we’re big and strong, but then he’s going to take care of his allies. He’s going to make sure he takes care of India who he deeply, deeply admires and respects, and we are going to have a great, great relationship together.”
Lutnick sounded less conciliatory when he laid out the US terms for a deal: “India is very protectionist with tariffs. They have 100 per cent tariff on this and 100 per cent tariff on that. And if you ask them why, the answer is, I don’t know why. It just is. So I think the idea of really looking at those things, thinking about them, and bringing them down to a level that is reasonable and appropriate so we can be great trading partners with each other, I think, is absolutely on the table, and it’s not stressful because they haven’t thought about it. They think, yeah, it makes sense. Let’s go make this a proper trading relationship.”
“What I hope to achieve is market access. We would like our businesses to have reasonable access to the markets of India. Now, it’s not going to be everything, and it’s not going to be everywhere, but we want to have the trade deficit reduced now, in exchange for that, what India is going to want is they’re going to want certain key markets… that they’re going to want to make sure that they have special access to the American marketplace.” he added.
