US expects India to apologise, make trade deal on Trump’s terms

WASHINGTON: US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Friday said he expects India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to apologise and resume the stalled trade talks while making a trade deal on President Donald Trump’s terms.

Read more: Trump says India is a ‘dead economy’, Rahul agrees

As the Trump tariffs have hit India hard, Lutnick told Bloomberg that India would say “they’re sorry”.

“In a month or two, I think India’s going to be at the table, and they’re gonna say they’re sorry, and they’re going to try to make a deal with Donald Trump, and it will be on Donald Trump’s desk how he wants to deal with Modi.”

He was asked to comment on Trump’s assertion that the US had lost India and Russia to “deepest, darkest China“.

Lutnick described Modi’s meeting with the Chinese and Russian leaders as just a “bravado”.

“So I think what happens is it’s all bravado, because you think it feels good to fight with the biggest clients in the world. But eventually, your businesses are going to say, ‘You’ve got to stop this and go make a deal with America’.”

Earlier this week, Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal said New Delhi was in talks with Washington for a bilateral trade agreement.

Read more: India still eyeing US trade deal as Trump tariffs hit cotton badly

JUST ‘VOWEL’ BETWEEN RUSSIA AND CHINA

The US commerce secretary yet again raised the issue of Russian oil which, he said, should not be bought by India as well as not opening the market to US goods.

“India doesn’t yet want to open their market. Stop buying Russian oil. And stop being a part of BRICS. They’re the vowel between Russia and China. If that’s who you want to be, go be it.”

On Friday, Lutnick repeated the US stance that profiteering on the Ukraine war.

Read more: Russia sees India keep buying its oil as US says it’s profiteering

“Because the oil is sanctioned, it’s really, really cheap, because the Russians are trying to find people to buy it. And so the Indians have just decided… let’s buy it cheap and make a tonne of money,” he said.

At the same time, he raised the issue of allegiance.

In this connection, Lutnick said India would either have to support the dollar and the US, face the tariffs.

“It’s ridiculous, and they either need to decide which side they want to be on.”

“Either support the dollar, support the United States of America, support your biggest client, who’s the American consumer, or, I guess you’re gonna pay 50 per cent tariff, and let’s see how long this lasts,” Lutnick added.

CONSUMERS vs SELLERS

To argue his case, he Lutnick said no one could ignore the US for being the world’s biggest consumer market.

“The Chinese sell to us. The Indians sell to us. They’re not going to be able to sell to each other. We are the consumer of the world. People have to remember, it’s our 30 trillion dollar economy that is the consumer of the world.”

That’s why he argued that China and India would eventually “come back” to the US.

“So eventually, they all have to come back to the customer, because we all know eventually, the customer is always right.”