India brags about having 1.4 billion people but won't buy one bushel of US corn: Lutnick

India brags about having 1.4 billion people but won't buy even a small amount of American corn, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said, asserting that New Delhi must bring down its tariffs or face a “tough time” doing business with the US.

Lutnick made the comments during an interview on Saturday when he was asked whether the US is mismanaging “very valuable relationships” with “important allies” like India, Canada and Brazil with the tariffs imposed on these countries.

“The relationship is one way, they sell to us and take advantage of us. They block us from their economy, and they sell to us while we are wide open for them to come in (and) take advantage,” Lutnick said. “The president says, ‘fair and reciprocal trade',” he added.

“India brags that they have 1.4 billion people. Why won't 1.4 billion people buy one bushel of US corn? Doesn't that rub you the wrong way that they sell everything to us and they won't buy our corn. They put tariffs on everything,” Lutnick said.

He added that President Donald Trump has said “‘bring down your tariffs, treat us the way we treat you'”. The commerce secretary further said “we've got to right years of wrong so we want a tariff going the other way until we fix this”.

“That's the President's model, and you either accept it or you're going to have a tough time doing business with the world's greatest consumer,” Lutnick said.

The Trump administration has imposed 50 per cent tariffs on India, including 25 per cent for Delhi's purchases of Russian oil, among the highest imposed on any country in the world.

India has described the US action as “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable”.

Defending its purchase of Russian crude oil, India has been maintaining that its energy procurement is driven by national interest and market dynamics.