India a country US 'needs to fix': Trump aide Lutnick amid tariff row

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick escalated criticism of India, urging New Delhi to lower tariffs and rethink Russian oil imports as trade tensions with Washington mount

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has again targeted India, saying that New Delhi must “react correctly” to Washington by opening its market and stopping policies that damage American interests.

 

“We have a bunch of countries to fix... like Switzerland, Brazil, like India. These are countries that need to really react correctly to America,” Lutnick told in an interview to NewsNation. “They need to open their markets and stop taking actions that harm America.”

 

His remarks come as Washington and New Delhi remain locked in disputes over tariffs, trade access, and energy ties with Russia.

 

Trump tariffs on India

 

The Trump administration imposed some of the highest duties on Indian goods, including a 50 per cent tariff overall and 25 per cent on Russian oil purchases. New Delhi has described the moves as unfair, unjustified and unreasonable.

 

 

Lutnick has argued that India exaggerates its market size while restricting imports from the United States. “India brags that they have 1.4 billion people. Why won't 1.4 billion people buy one bushel of US corn? Doesn't that rub you the wrong way that they sell everything to us and they won't buy our corn. They put tariffs on everything,” he said in a recent interview.

 

According to Lutnick, Trump’s position is clear: bring down tariffs or face barriers in the American market. “The relationship is one way. They sell to us and take advantage of us. They block us from their economy, and they sell to us while we are wide open,” Lutnick said.

 

In an interview with Bloomberg, Lutnick said that India’s resistance in trade negotiations was “all bravado", predicting that New Delhi would return to the table within “a month or two” under pressure from its businesses.

 

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

 

Lutnick has also taken aim at India’s continuing purchase of discounted Russian crude oil. He called the move “plain wrong” and “ridiculous", warning that India must decide “which side it wants to be on".

 

“We are the consumer of the world,” he said. “People have to remember, it's our $30 trillion economy that is the consumer of the world. So eventually they all have to come back to the customer, because we all know eventually the customer is always right.”  However, in a recent interview with CNN, Lutnick also said that Washington will finalise a trade deal with India as soon as the latter stops buying Russian oil.