Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: With trade negotiations between India and the US still underway, a key close aide of US President Donald Trump has made a big claim on why a possible deal between the two countries fell through. US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick said that he had set a deal up, but it couldn’t get finalised as Prime Minister Narendra Modi didn’t call Donald Trump.
“It’s all set up, but I said I gotta have Modi call the President…they were uncomfortable doing it, so Modi didn’t call,” Lutnick said during a podcast interview with entrepreneur Chamath Palihapitiya, recalling the negotiations. Lutnick later said that India and the US were very close to finalising a deal but New Delhi was “on the wrong side of the see-saw”.
Lutnick also said that the US did several deals with countries like Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines in the coming week, but the one with India was supposed to happen even before that. “India’s (deal) was gonna be done before them (the other countries). I negotiated with them at a higher rate,” Lutnick said.
The Trump aide’s remarks come days after Trump hinted at a further hike in the existing tariffs on India if didn’t help with the “Russian oil issue”.
“India wanted to make me happy. Modi is a very good guy and he knew I was not happy. And it was important to make me happy. We can raise tariffs on them very quickly,” Trump recently said.
