US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, along with other Trump administration’s top officials, have on Friday urged a New York-based US court to uphold the president’s sweeping tariff powers, warning that a legal setback could upend an “asymmetric” trade truce with China, embarrass Washington, and reignite conflict between India and Pakistan.
Congress general secretary in-charge of Communication Jairam Ramesh (Photo: ANI)
The Congress on Wednesday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to clarify if US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s latest assertion made before a New York-based US Court that President Donald Trump used his tariff power to broker a ‘tenuous ceasefire’ between India and Pakistan and bring about a ‘fragile peace’ was actually true?
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, along with other Trump administration’s top officials, have on Friday urged a New York-based US court to uphold the president’s sweeping tariff powers, warning that a legal setback could upend an “asymmetric” trade truce with China, embarrass Washington, and reignite conflict between India and Pakistan.
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Mr Lutnick, along with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, and Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Marco Rubio submitted their statements on Friday to the New York-based Court of International Trade, in response to a lawsuit filed by a coalition of small American businesses challenging US President Trump’s tariffs.
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“The Prime Minister should let the country know whether it is true that the US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick filed a statement in the New York-based US Court of International Trade on May 23rd, 2025 swearing that President Trump used his tariff power to broker a ‘tenuous ceasefire’ between India and Pakistan and bring about a ‘fragile peace’,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh maintained in a post on social media handle X.
The Congress had repeatedly insisted that the Prime Minister come clean on the repeated claims being bragged by US President Trump that it was the US that brokered the ceasefire between India and Pakistan.
Crediting trade diplomacy to be the crux of the efforts for easing tensions, Mr Trump had also praised leaders of both countries as “smart and strong.”
India and Pakistan had agreed to a ceasefire on May 10 after four days of intense hostilities.
“Mr Lutnick follows in the footsteps of President Trump himself, who made this assertion 8 times in 11 days in 3 different countries. The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has echoed the same and also mentioned a ‘neutral site’ for talks between India and Pakistan,” Mr Ramesh alleged, urging: ”Pradhan Mantri Chuppi Todo (prime minister break your silence).”
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