US urges India, Brazil to reform trade or risk consequences

New York: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said that the US will have to “fix” countries like Brazil and India, asserting that these nations need to react correctly to America by opening their markets and refraining from actions that could harm American interests.

The Trump administration has imposed 50 per cent tariffs on India, including a 25 per cent tariff on New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil, among the highest tariff rates imposed on any country in the world.

“We have a bunch of countries to fix, like Switzerland, Brazil, India – these are countries that need to really react correctly to America. Open their markets, stop taking actions that harm America, and that’s why we’re off sides with them,” Lutnick said in an interview with NewsNation.

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Lutnick said that these countries have to understand that if “you want to sell to the US consumers, you’ve got to play ball with the President of the United States.”

Apart from India and Brazil, Lutnick also mentioned countries like Taiwan and Switzerland that have unresolved trade issues with the US.

“But we’ll sort it out over time,” Lutnick said while talking about these countries, including India.

India has been maintaining that its energy procurement is driven by national interest and market dynamics. India turned to purchasing Russian oil sold at a discount after Western countries imposed sanctions on Moscow and shunned its supplies over its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The US remained India’s largest trading partner for the fourth consecutive year in 2024-25, with bilateral trade valued at USD 131.84 billion (USD 86.5 billion exports).

The US accounts for about 18 per cent of India’s total goods exports, 6.22 per cent in imports, and 10.73 per cent in the country’s total merchandise trade.

A delegation led by Union Commerce and Industries Minister Piyush Goyal was in New York last week for meetings with the US side.

The two countries had hoped to conclude the first tranche of a Bilateral Trade Agreement by October-November of 2025. The pact is aimed at more than doubling the bilateral trade to USD 500 billion by 2030 from the current USD 191 billion.

A team of officials from the office of the US Trade Representative also visited India on September 16 to discuss various aspects of the trade deal, and decided to intensify efforts in this regard.

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