WASHINGTON — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced Tuesday that he has brokered a trade deal with an unidentified country — but said that he can’t share the details yet.
“I have a deal done, done, done, done, but I need to wait for their prime minister and their parliament to give its approval, which I expect shortly,” Lutnick told The Post in a statement.
Lutnick is waiting for the nation’s prime minister and parliament to approve the deal before announcing the country. REUTERSThough Lutnick did not name the country, White House officials from President Trump on down have expressed optimism about India being the first nation to reach a one-for-one trade deal with Washington.
“India’s coming along great. I think we’ll have a deal with India… they want to make a deal,” the president said on the White House lawn moments before Lutnick issued his statement.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who has taken the lead in US trade negotiations to avert President Trump’s massive “reciprocal” tariffs,” has characterized talks as far along with India, Japan and South Korea.
“Vice President Vance was in India last week. I think that he and [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi made some very good progress, so I could see some announcements on India,” Bessent told reporters at a White House briefing Tuesday morning. “I could see the contours of a deal with the Republic of Korea coming together, and then we’ve had substantial talks with the Japanese.
“I think that we are very close on India.”
‘Strategic uncertainty’
Bessent added to reporters that the lack of firm information about the status of talks is a byproduct of “strategic uncertainty” byTrump.
“What we are doing is we’ve created a process. I think the aperture of uncertainty will be narrowing, and as we start moving forward announcing deals, then there will be certainty,” he told reporters. “But certainty is not necessarily a good thing in negotiating.”
The treasury secretary also told a roundtable of about a dozen reporters on the sidelines of the annual World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings last week that the US and India were “very close” to an agreement because the world’s most populous nation has “fewer non-tariff trade barriers, obviously, no currency manipulation, [and] very, very little government subsidies.”
“Reaching a deal with the Indians is much easier,” Bessent concluded.
Vance and Modi announced April 22 they had worked out a roadmap to proceed with trade talks to avoid a possible 26% tariff rate on Indian imports taking effect in early July.
India accounted for nearly 3% of imported goods to the US as of February, according to Census Bureau data. The US had a $45.7 billion trade deficit with India in 2024, according to the Office of the US Trade Representative.
