India-US Trade Deal: Signalling an intent to rebuild a relationship that has been strained over tariff issues, and an early conclusion of the proposed
trade deal, US President Donald Trump's new ambassador to Delhi Sergio Gor said that no country is as essential as India to the United States. Sergio Gor said that both New Delhi and Washington are actively engaged to firm up a trade deal and the next call between the representatives of the two sides are scheduled for Tuesday (January 13). "Many of you have asked me for an update on the ongoing trade deal negotiations. Both sides continue to actively engage. In fact, the next call on trade will occur tomorrow," Gor said at a press conference on Monday. Negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement between the two sides had hit a major roadblock after Trump slapped a whopping 50 per cent tariff on India, including a 25 per cent additional duty for its purchase of Russian crude oil. So far, six rounds of negotiations have been held for that. Gor statement regarding the proposed India-US bilateral trade deal comes days after US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested Washington was not very keen to seal the deal soon. At a podcast, Lutnick said that the trade deal between India and the US couldn't be sealed last year, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not make a telephone call to President Donald Trump, a claim rejected by New Delhi as "inaccurate".
What US Commerce Secretary Said
He recalled that after US sealed a deal with the UK, Trump was asked which country would be the next, and the US President named India publicly. "We were talking (with) India, and we told India, 'You have three Fridays'. Well, they have to get it done," he said.
Lutnick said Trump does trade deals like a staircase -- " the first stair gets the best deal" -- and the president had named India as being next in line after the US sealed a trade deal with the UK in June 2025. "We did this whole bunch of deals because we negotiated them and assumed India was going to be done before them. I had negotiated them at a higher rate, so now the problem is the deals came out at a higher rate and then India calls back and says, 'Okay, we're ready'," Lutnick said.
"I said ready for what? It was like three weeks later. Are you ready for the train that left the station three weeks ago?" he said. "But let's be clear; it's his (Trump) deal. He is closer. He does the deal. So I said, 'You got to have Modi, it's all set up, you have to have Modi call the president. They (India) were uncomfortable doing it, so Modi didn't call."
Lutnick said after that Friday, the US announced trade deals with Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. The US had firmed up a number of trade pacts with several countries in July. The US Commerce Secretary suggested that the deal that had been negotiated between the US and India was no longer on the table.
India Rebukes Claims
"We have seen the remarks. India and the US were committed to negotiating a bilateral trade agreement with the US as far back as February 13 last year. Since then, the two sides have held multiple rounds of negotiation to arrive at a balanced and mutually beneficial trade agreement. On several occasions, we have been close to a deal. The characterisation of these discussions in the reported remarks is not accurate, " External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement.
"Incidentally, the prime minister and President Trump have also spoken on the phone on eight occasions during 2025, covering different aspects of our wide-ranging partnership," he added.
