“I set the deal up. But you had to have Modi call President Trump. They (India) were uncomfortable with it. So Modi didn’t call,” said Lutnick. “Assumed India deal is going to be done before Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and negotiated with them at a higher rate. And then India calls back and says, ‘Oh, okay. We—we’re ready.’ I said, ‘Ready for what?’ You know, it was like three weeks later. I go, ‘Are—are you ready for the train that left the station three weeks ago?'”
India and the US have been negotiating the proposed bilateral trade agreement since March. So far, the two sides have held six rounds of negotiations. The Trump administration has imposed 50 per cent tariffs on India, including 25 per cent for Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil, among the highest imposed on any country in the world. India has described the US action as “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable”.
Fresh threats:
India is once again facing the heat of a proposed US law that would seek to levy as much as 500% tariffs on countries for buying Russian oil, after US senator Lindsey Graham said President Donald Trump has “greenlit” the Russia Sanctions bill.
The bill, titled Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025, enables the US administration to impose tariffs and secondary sanctions on countries buying Russian oil, gas, and uranium, etc. “The President must increase the rate of duty on all goods and services imported from Russia into the United States to at least 500% relative to the value of such goods and services,” according to the bill.
A version of the bill released in April 2025 has a provision for the President to “waive the 500% tariffs for a period of up to 180 days with respect to a country, goods or service if he determines it is in the national interest of the United States.”
The US remained India’s largest trading partner for the fourth consecutive year in 2024-25, with bilateral trade valued at $131.84 billion ($86.5 billion exports). The US accounts for about 18 per cent of India’s total goods exports, 6.22 per cent of its imports, and 10.73 per cent of its total merchandise trade. According to exporters, the agreement is important as India’s merchandise exports to the US declined for the second consecutive month in October, falling by 8.58 per cent to $6.3 billion due to the hefty tariffs imposed by Washington.