In the face of the 50 per cent tariff imposed on Indian goods, Delhi is neither “desperate nor cornered”, according to analysts.
Signalling a hardening of America’s position on the tariff issue, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Friday that he expected New Delhi to say “sorry” and cut a deal with Washington.
By then, Indian businesses would have realised they could not thrive without the US, Lutnick argued, calling India’s decision to buy oil from Russia “ridiculous”.
“In a month or two months, I think India is going to be at the table, and they are going to say they are sorry, and they are going to try to make a deal with Donald Trump,” Lutnick said, adding that with America’s US$30 trillion economy, “we all know eventually the customer is always right”.
Ian Hall, an international relations professor at Australia’s Griffith University, said while India was likely to keep negotiating for a deal as it had done since February, it would not want one “on any terms”.
