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US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said the proposed India–US trade deal has not taken shape yet because Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not personally call US President Donald Trump.
“What I would do is I would negotiate the contracts and set the whole deal up. But let’s be clear, it’s his deal. Yeah, okay, he’s the closer. He does the deal. So I said, ‘You got to have Modi (call). It’s all set up. You have to have Modi call the president.’ They were uncomfortable doing it, so Modi didn’t call," Lutnick said in a podcast.
Speaking on the All-In Podcast, hosted by four Silicon Valley venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, Lutnick said the US had negotiated trade agreements with other countries earlier, believing India would finalise a deal first.
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“India just was, you know, on the wrong side of the seesaw…," Lutnick said. “It was just they couldn’t get it done when they needed to, and then they couldn’t get it done, and then they couldn’t get it done, and then they couldn’t get it done. And so what happened is all these other countries kept doing deals, and they’re just further in the back of the line, and now when they say, but what I want is, I want the deal in between the UK and Vietnam, right? Because that’s what I negotiate, right? And they remember, and I remember they say, but, but you agreed? And I said, then. Not now," he added.
Why the UK got the better deal
Recalling how the US finalised its first trade agreement under President Donald Trump, Lutnick said the UK secured preferential terms because it moved quickly, unlike India.
“If you remember, I did the first deal — the UK. We told them they had to get it done by two Fridays, because that was the date the train was going to leave the station. I had many other countries in talks. President Trump does deals like a staircase. The first step gets the best deal. After the first country goes, everyone wants that deal. But the answer is no — they were first, they took the chance, and they moved the quickest," he said.
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