Trump used offers of trade access to broker Indo-Pak ceasefire, claims U.S. Commerce Secretary

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick claimed that the ceasefire between India and Pakistan was “only achieved” after Donald Trump stepped in and offered both countries trading access to the U.S. in order to “avert a full-scale war”. File
| Photo Credit: AP

The U.S. government has, for the first time, put on record in a court submission its claim that the ceasefire between India and Pakistan, following India’s Operation Sindoor, was “only achieved” after U.S. President Donald Trump stepped in and offered both countries trading access to the U.S. in order to “avert a full-scale war”.

This comes about two weeks after External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal on May 13 officially clarified that while there were “conversations” between Indian and U.S. leaders between May 7 — when Operation Sindoor commenced — and May 10, “the issue of trade did not come up in any of these discussions”.

Mr. Jaiswal had added that the ceasefire had been forged through “direct contact”, not via U.S. mediation. He was reacting to Mr. Trump’s comments a day earlier saying that India and Pakistan had ended hostilities for a lot of reasons, but “trade was the big one”.

The on-record submission to the United States Court of International Trade was made on May 23 by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and three other officials of the Trump administration.

Tariffs and national security

They were speaking in their defence against a lawsuit filed by small U.S.-based companies challenging the 10% global tariffs Mr. Trump had imposed on nearly all imports. In the submission, Mr. Lutnick argued that the ability to impose such tariffs was a “cornerstone” of the U.S. national security architecture.

“For example, India and Pakistan — two nuclear powers engaged in combat operations just 13 days ago — reached a tenuous ceasefire on May 10, 2025,” Mr. Lutnick noted. “This ceasefire was only achieved after President Trump interceded and offered both nations trading access with the United States to avert a full-scale war.”

“An adverse ruling that constrains presidential power in this case could lead India and Pakistan to question the validity of President Trump’s offer, threatening the security of an entire region and the lives of millions,” he added.

When asked about this latest document filed in the U.S. Court of International Trade, Mr. Jaiswal said that the Indian government had made its stand on the ceasefire amply clear in the briefing on May 13.

Trade talks at advanced stage

These U.S. government statements about trade access come at a time when India and the U.S. have reached the advanced stage of negotiations for some sort of trade deal by July 9 — the deadline for the 90-day pause Mr. Trump had provided on his global retaliatory tariffs.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal returned last weekend from a week-long trip to the U.S. where he met Mr. Lutnick twice in the course of the negotiations over the trade deal. U.S. government officials are expected to now travel to India to continue the negotiations over the next few weeks.

The two countries are also involved in an ongoing tussle at the World Trade Organization (WTO). While India has informed the WTO that it reserves the right to impose reciprocal tariffs on the U.S. in reaction to that country’s increased import duties on steel and aluminium, the U.S. has maintained that these duties are a matter of national security and cannot be contested at the WTO.