United States Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has renewed criticism of India, urging New Delhi to "react correctly" to Washington by opening its markets
and halting policies that he said harm 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 NewsNation. "They need to open their markets and stop taking actions that harm America," he added. The remarks come as Washington and New Delhi remain at odds over tariffs, market access and India's continued energy trade with Russia. The Trump administration has imposed some of the steepest tariffs on Indian goods, including a 50 percent overall duty and 25 percent on Russian oil purchases. New Delhi has called the measures unfair and unreasonable. Lutnick had earlier argued that India exaggerates its market size while keeping out US imports. "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 separate interview with Bloomberg, Lutnick predicted India would return to trade talks soon. "It’s all bravado ‘cause they 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 your deal with America.’ So I think, yes, in a month or two months, I think India’s going to be at the table, and they’re going to say they’re sorry, and they’re going to try to make a deal with Donald Trump." Lutnick also warned India’s heavy reliance on discounted Russian oil was unsustainable. "Before the Russian conflict, Indians bought less than 2% of their oil from Russia. And now they’re buying 40%....That is just plain wrong," he said. "They need to decide which side they want to be on. Either support the dollar, support the USA … or pay a 50% tariff. Let’s see how long that lasts," he added.
