US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik has warned that if India refuses to buy maize grown in the US, it is in danger of losing access to the US market, while trade talks between the two countries are scheduled to resume. Lutnik said in an interview to Exios that despite President Donald Trump indicating a soft trend towards India, if India does not decrease in tariffs, it may have to face a difficult time.
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Howard Lutnik has questioned India over not opening its market for American maize that India is a boast that they have 1.4 billion people. Why don’t 1.4 billion people buy a young American maize? Let us tell you that in 2024-25, out of India’s total 0.97 million tonnes of maize imports, a large part came from Myanmar (0.53 million tonnes) and Ukraine (0.39 million tonnes). Some quantities were also imported from the US.
He described business relations as unilateral. Lutnik said that they sell us and take advantage of us. They keep us separate from their economy, and they sell us while we are fully open to come and take advantage of them. Lutenik also claimed that President Trump has asked India to “reduce your tariffs, treat us the same as we do with you.” He said that the administration has to improve the mistakes that have been going on for years, so we want the tariff to be in the other direction until we fix it. Lutenik said, “This is the president’s model, and either you accept it, otherwise you will be difficult to trade with the world’s largest consumer.”
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Let us tell you that the maize produced in the US is largely genetically modified, and India banned both such varieties from entering the food chain to ban both imports and local farming of GM maize. Even the proposal of NITI Aayog to grow GM maize for ethanol production was put on hold. Since American corn is genetically modified, it is one of the cheapest maize available worldwide and is widely used for both human consumption and animal fodder.
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