U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, talking on the 2025 U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Discussion board (USISPF), outlined the way forward for U.S.-India commerce ties, urging deeper financial cooperation according to President Trump’s tariff-driven push.
“Earlier countries get a better deal. That’s the way it is,” Lutnick remarked throughout his keynote handle on the USISPF on Monday in Washington D.C. “Those who come in, you know, July 4th to July 9th, there’s just going to be a pile. But those who are earlier—and I think India’s trying hard to be one of the earlier countries, which I appreciate.”
The commerce secretary acknowledged the unusually speedy timeline the administration is pursuing in distinction to conventional multi-year negotiations.
“These kinds of deals used to take 2 or 3 years, and we’re trying to get them done in a month, which is, you know, just not the ordinary DNA of trading relationships between countries,” he stated.
INDIA HAS BEEN OPEN TO MKAING BIG TRADE PROGRESS, KEVIN HASSETT SAYS
Howard Lutnick, US commerce secretary, within the Oval Workplace of the White Home in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (Francis Chung/Politico/Bloomberg through Getty Pictures / Getty Pictures)
Lutnick argued that the administration just isn’t advocating for sweeping concessions from India, however “reasonable access to the markets of India.”
“We would like our businesses to have reasonable access to the markets of India,” he stated. “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 get certain key markets that they are going to want to make sure that they have special access to the American marketplace,” he stated. “And so that’s the tradeoff.”
He stated that ongoing talks between India and the U.S. are in a “very good place.”
“We’ve managed, I think, to be in a very, very good place, and you should expect a deal between the United States and India in the not-too-distant future, because I think we found a place that really works for both countries,” he stated.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick departs after U.S. President Donald Trump indicators government orders imposing tariffs on imported items throughout a “Make America Wealthy Again” commerce announcement occasion within the Rose Backyard on the White Home on April 2, 202 (Andrew Harnik/Getty Pictures / Getty Pictures)
In a Monday night TruthSocial publish, Trump doubled down on his core commerce doctrine: “If other Countries are allowed to use Tariffs against us, and we’re not allowed to counter them, quickly and nimbly, with Tariffs against them, our Country doesn’t have, even a small chance, of Economic survival.”
PRESIDENT TRUMP, INDIA’S MODI TO TACKLE TRADE, TARIFF TENSIONS AT HIGH-STAKES MEETING
U.S. President Donald Trump holds up a chart of “reciprocal tariffs” whereas talking throughout a “Make America Wealthy Again” commerce announcement occasion within the Rose Backyard on the White Home on April 2, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Pictures / Getty Pictures)
In April, Trump imposed a 27% reciprocal tariff on most Indian exports to strain India into decreasing its tariffs. Whereas strategic sectors like prescribed drugs have been exempt, industries resembling textiles and equipment have been affected.
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India has since averted retaliation, opting as a substitute to barter with the administration to ease the tariffs.
