U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik recently suggested that India could soon come to the negotiating table, offer an apology to the United States, and attempt to reach a trade deal. Speaking to Bloomberg Surveillance, he compared the situation with India to past U.S.-Canada trade tensions.
Lutnik recalled that Canada’s retaliatory tariffs initially caused an economic slowdown—GDP fell by 1.6% and unemployment rose to 8%—before Ottawa eventually rolled back its tariffs. “It’s all posturing,” Lutnik said. “At first, it may feel satisfying to push back against the world’s largest customer. But ultimately, businesses tell their government, ‘Stop this and make a deal with America.’”
He predicts that within a month or two, India will follow a similar path, negotiating directly with Donald Trump, who will then decide how to handle the situation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Trump is a dealmaker,” Lutnik emphasized, “and this is exactly the kind of situation where his approach matters.”
The comments come in the wake of the recent Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in China, which brought together leaders including Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump noted afterward that India and Russia are increasingly aligning with China, describing their relationship as “deep, dark, and mysterious.”
Meanwhile, tensions remain high between the U.S. and India. The two nations have yet to finalize a trade agreement following Trump’s imposition of sweeping tariffs on most of America’s trading partners. India has also emerged as a major buyer of Russian oil, prompting U.S. retaliation with tariffs as high as 50%, one of the highest in the world.
