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'Trade Offer Averted India-Pakistan War': Trump Administration Tells US Court

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick defended Trump's tariff diplomacy and cited the recent India-Pakistan flare-up to claim that Trump’s offer of trade access was instrumental in halting the conflict.
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The Wire Staff
May 28 2025
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US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick defended Trump's tariff diplomacy and cited the recent India-Pakistan flare-up to claim that Trump’s offer of trade access was instrumental in halting the conflict.
 trade offer averted india pakistan war   trump administration tells us court
Donald Trump. In the foreground are Shehbaz Sharif, Howard Lutnick and Narendra Modi.
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New Delhi: The Trump administration has informed a New York federal court in a written filing that US president Donald Trump used trade access as an incentive to “avert a full-scale war” between India and Pakistan.

While Trump has so far posted about his usage of trade leverage on social media or public speeches, this is the first time that this claim has been ensconced in a court document. India, for its part, maintains that trade was never mentioned in any of the official phone calls between Indian and US interlocutors during the four-day conflict earlier this month.

This was first reported by the South China Morning PostThe Wire has also reviewed the filing.

The statement by US Commerce Secretary Howard W. Lutnick was part of legal submissions from four Trump administration cabinet officials opposing a lawsuit filed by small companies challenging the global 10% tariffs imposed on nearly all imports, along with additional tariffs targeting specific countries. The case is before the US Court of International Trade (CIT), a federal court with jurisdiction over matters involving international trade and customs laws.

In the declaration dated May 23, Lutnick defended the use of tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), a law that allows the US President to impose economic restrictions during national emergencies. He argued that such measures “signals to foreign governments that certain conduct – whether economic predation, trade manipulation, or narcotics trafficking – will incur serious consequences”

He further warned that a ruling in favour of the petitioners “would have ripple effects across every domain in which economic instruments are used for strategic effect.”

To illustrate, Lutnick cited the recent India-Pakistan flare-up, claiming that Trump’s offer of trade access was instrumental in halting the conflict.

“For example, India and Pakistan – two nuclear powers engaged in combat operations just 13 days ago – reached a tenuous ceasefire on May 10, 2025. 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,” Lutnick stated in the submission to the three-judge bench.

India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, striking nine sites tied to terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The air and missile attacks came in response to a terrorist strike in Pahalgam on April 22 that killed 26 civilians, most of them tourists. Pakistan retaliated, triggering a sharp escalation in hostilities over the following days, marked by drone incursions, air defence operations, and artillery exchanges.

On May 10, Trump was first to announce and claim that the US had brokered ceasefire via social media. India does not use the term “ceasefire,” instead describing it as a cessation of hostilities following a direct military-to-military phone call.

A day later, Trump posted on Truth Social that while “not even discussed, I am going to increase trade, substantially, with both of these great Nations” – marking the first time he publicly linked trade to the latest India-Pakistan conflict.

The following day on May 12, Trump claimed that the threat of cutting off trade forced India and Pakistan to stop their fighting.  Trump’s comments came hours just before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first address to the nation after start of Operation Sindoor. 

“I said, come on, we’re gonna do a lot of trade with you guys. Let’s stop it. Let’s stop it. If you stop it, we’ll do a trade. If you don’t stop it, we’re not gonna do any trade. People have never really used trade the way I used it, that I can tell you, and all of a sudden, they said, I think we’re gonna stop,” Trump said at a White House event.

At first, the Indian government did not issue a formal response, but official sources, speaking off the record on May 12, dismissed Trump’s account, stating: “India rebuts US claim.”

For the first time, Indian officials also disclosed details of senior-level calls with US counterparts during the conflict. “After Operation Sindoor commenced, VP J. D. Vance spoke to the prime minister on May 9. Secretary Rubio spoke to the external affairs minister on May 8 and May 10 and to the national security adviser on May 10. There was no reference to trade in any of these discussions,” the sources said.

At a Ministry of External Affairs media briefing on May 13, spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal formally rebutted the claim – “From the time Operation Sindoor commenced on 7th May, till the understanding on cessation of firing and military action on 10th May, there were conversations between Indian and US leaders on the evolving military situation. The issue of trade did not come up in any of these discussions.”

Despite denials from India, Trump continued to repeat the claim.

In a May 15 interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier, he said, “The hatred was great. I said, we're going to talk about trade. We're going to do a lot of trade... I'm using trade to settle scores and to make peace.”

Again, on May 21, during a meeting with the South African President in the Oval Office, Trump said, “If you take a look at what we just did with Pakistan and India. We settled that whole, and I think I settled it through trade.”

India is currently in talks with the United States to finalise a trade agreement, with negotiations having started in February. The need to reach a deal gained urgency after Trump announced the ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs on April 2, which added a 26 percent duty on Indian imports, in addition to the existing 10 percent global tariff. These country-specific tariffs were later suspended for 90 days, until July 8.

In a court declaration, the US commerce secretary defended the use of presidential emergency economic powers as essential to securing favourable trade deals, arguing that the continued threat of tariffs was a necessary bargaining tool.

“An adverse ruling would jeopardize the dozens of similar arrangements with foreign-trading partners that I am negotiating. Each of these negotiations is premised on the credible threat of enforcement of the IEEPA tariffs,” he stated.

The principal opposition party Congress asked Modi to clarify on the US Court Filing linking Trump Tariffs to India-Pakistan Cease.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Ramesh asked if it was true that US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick filed a sworn statement before the US Court of International Trade in New York on May 23, 2025, claiming that Trump used tariff threats to bring about a “tenuous ceasefire” and a “fragile peace” between the two South Asian neighbours.

He noted that this was not a new claim. “Mr. Lutnick follows in the footsteps of President Trump himself who made this assertion 8 times in 11 days in 3 different countries,” Ramesh said. He added that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had also echoed the same, even mentioning a “neutral site” for talks between India and Pakistan.

Signing off with a pointed political slogan, Ramesh called on the Prime Minister to break his silence: “Pradhan Mantri Chuppi Todo.”

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