US-India trade deal didn't happen because PM Modi didn't call President Trump, claims Lutnick

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has claimed that the trade deal between the US and India did not happen because Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not call US President Donald Trump.

"Let's be clear, it's his (Trump's) deal. He is the closer. He does it. It's all set up, you've got to have Modi, call the President. They were uncomfortable doing it. So, Modi didn't call. That Friday left, in the next week we did Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, we announced a whole bunch of deals," Lutnick said in an interview with the American venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya, as part of the All-In Podcast.

In July 2025, the U.S. closed tariff negotiations with the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, and South Korea.

According to the latest revelation by Lutnick, countries that agreed to close negotiations sooner enjoyed a lower tariff rate. However, the sequence of the tariff agreements in that month, and the respective rates, are not in alignment with Lutnick's claims.

Vietnam, which closed the negotiations much before most other countries, still bears the highest tariff rate for its exports to the US.

Country	Current US tariffs	Date of announcement
Vietnam	20%	July 2
Indonesia	19%	July 22
Philippines	19%	July 22
Japan	15%	July 23
EU	15%	July 27
South Korea	15%	July 31
UK	10%	May 8

India's exports to the US currently attract a 50% tariff, the highest rate in Asia. "Because we (the US) negotiated with them (India) and assumed that India is going to be done before them (other Asian countries) and negotiated with them at a higher rate. So now, the problem is that the deals came out at a higher rate, and then India claws back and says, 'Oh, okay, we are ready. ' I said, ready for what?!" the US Commerce Secretary said.

"You know, it was like 3 weeks later. I go, "Are you ready for the train that left the station 3 weeks ago?" Lutnick added.

Trump, too, has admitted in the past that he expected the tariff deal with India to be the easiest to close, but it wasn't to be.

Modi was one of the first to visit the US after Trump was reelected to the White House. Yet, India played hardball in the face of the demands from the US side.

Trump's repeated claims of intervention in the India-Pakistan conflict in May, which India has denied, made the negotiations tougher.

The ties between the two countries remain strained despite multiple rounds of talks and four conversations between the two leaders, and a bilateral trade deal remains a work in progress.