India pushed back on Friday, calling US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s claim “not accurate.” Lutnick said the India-US trade deal fell through because Prime Minister Narendra Modi didn’t speak directly to President Donald Trump.
Honestly, Lutnick’s remark made it sound like Trump’s hard line on Indian tariffs was less about actual trade issues and more about personal frustration. PM Modi wouldn’t call, so Trump hit back with tariffs 50% in some cases.
There’s still talk of more duties possibly coming, all because of that supposed snub.
“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. Since then, the two sides have held multiple rounds of negotiations 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,” External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told the media on Friday, January 9.
When reporters asked about it, Randhir Jaiswal said India still wants a trade agreement that works for both sides. He made it clear India’s ready to wrap up these talks.
Jaiswal also pointed out that Modi and Trump actually spoke by phone eight times in 2025, and they talked about all sorts of issues in their wide-ranging partnership.
