US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said the trade deal with India did not happen because Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not call US President Donald Trump.
In an interview with the ‘All-in Podcast’ on Thursday, Lutnick detailed how the India-US trade deal has not happened till now.
“I’ll tell you a story about India. I did the first deal with the UK, and we told the UK that they had to get it done by two Fridays from now. That the train was going to leave the station by two Fridays, because I have a lot of other countries doing things, and you know, if someone else is first, they’re first. President Trump does deals like a staircase,” Lutnick said.
The) first stair gets the best deal. You can’t get the best deal after the first guy,” he said.
Lutnick said Trump does things that way “because that way it incents you to come to the table”.
He recalled that after the UK deal, everyone asked Trump which country will be next and while the president talked about a variety of countries, “but he names India a couple of times publicly”.
“And we were talking (with) India, and we told India, ‘you have three Fridays’. Well, they have to get it done,” he said.
Lutnick said that while he would negotiate the contracts with the countries and set the whole deal up, “But let’s be clear, it’s his (Trump) deal. He is the 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.
He added that Washington was negotiating with other countries and “assumed India was going to be done before them”.
He recalled that after the UK deal, everyone asked Trump which country will be next and while the president talked about a variety of countries, “but he names India a couple of times publicly”.
“And we were talking (with) India, and we told India, ‘you have three Fridays’. Well, they have to get it done,” he said.
Lutnick said that while he would negotiate the contracts with the countries and set the whole deal up, “But let’s be clear, it’s his (Trump) deal. He is the 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.
He added that Washington was negotiating with other countries and “assumed India was going to be done before them”.
