India blocks United States’ farmers, claims America’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick

India blocks US’ farmers, said America’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in an interview with Bloomberg Television. President Donald Trump understands that the best way to expand U.S. farmers’ access to global markets is by negotiating deals with countries (including India) that currently block their products.

Trump is the president of the United States of America and not the president of the world, said Lutnick.

During the interview, the praised the UK and Mexico for refraining from engaging in tit-for-tat tariff hikes with the US, warning that those trading partners that upset Trump with their responses to American protectionist steps open themselves to a severe reaction.

“If you make him unhappy, he responds unhappy,” Lutnick said of Trump’s move Thursday to slap a 200% tariff on European Union alcohol products in reaction to the EU’s retaliation against new US steel and aluminum duties.

Trump’s intention is to “break down those walls” preventing American products from coming in, and to build manufacturing capacity in industries crucial to national security, Lutnick said. Countries that understand that motive and are open to working with the US will get different treatment, he said.

For those nations that “go right back to old-school” tit-for-tat measures “the president’s going to deal with them with strength and with power,” he said.