‘Countries need to ‘react correctly’ to the U.S.’, Lutnick says about India and others

The U.S. needed to “fix” certain countries like India, Switzerland and Brazil, in terms of their trading relationships with America, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said. He said the countries needed to “ react correctly” to the U.S. and stop taking actions that were harmful to the U.S.

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed a 50% tariff rate on India, including a 25% ‘penalty’ for India’s trade in oil with Russia.

“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,” Mr Lutnick said in an interview to News Nation that aired on Sunday.

“ And that’s why we are off-sides with them,” he added.

Mr Trump, who has appeared in recent weeks to be attempting to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin to bring an end to the Russia-Ukraine war, has said India is helping to fund Moscow through its purchases of oil. India has been pushing back against U.S. pressure, saying in early August that the U.S. itself imports chemicals, fertilizers and uranium hexafluoride from Russia and that the European Union continues to import energy from Moscow.

In the interview, Mr Lutnick said the countries in question needed to understand that if they wanted to sell to the U.S. consumer, they had “to play ball” with the President of the United States.

Mr Modi and Mr Trump spoke on the phone on September 16, for Mr Modi’s birthday. The call was part of an apparent thaw in the relationship that had reached a low not seen in years, caused by the trade and tariff tensions.

 “So we need to sort those out,” Mr. Lutnick said suggesting that it would take time but would get sorted out.

Mr. Lutnick added Taiwan to the list and suggested deals would be sorted out over time.

Switzerland had a $40 billion trade deficit with the U.S., he said and that it was a “small rich country” because it sold America $40 billion “extra” of stuff.

“The first deal is always the best deal,” Mr Lutnick said, referring to the May 8 U.K.-U.S. agreement on trade and tariffs (which has not yet been finalized) adding that Switzerland, as a “small country”, was looking for a similar deal.

“You couldn’t even get that on May 9th after we did the deal on May 8th,” Mr Lutnick said, adding,

 “Because that [the U.K’s] was the first deal, you’d have to pay a little more,” he added .

Mr Lutnick called Europe’s (i.e. the European Union) economy “special” and an “ extraordinary” opportunity for the U.S. to sell in, based on the size of its population and economy. The E.U. and U.S. announced a deal in July, during Mr Trump’s visit to Scotland.