US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick met with Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on 26th February 2026 in Delhi to follow up on the trade deal announced just two week ago and that ended six months of disagreement over tariffs. US President Donald Trump’s confidant and high profile US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor, the US Commerce Department and Indian Minister confirmed that Lutnick made an unscheduled visit. The visit and the productive luncheon meeting is significant as the US Supreme Court just on 20th February struck down Trump’s trade tariffs. American and Indian officials said the Lutnick-Goyal talks aimed to deepen and expand the bilateral trade and economic relationship. Lutnick was on his way to Jodhpur to attend the wedding of Ayesha Arora, the daughter of high profile Indian tech executive Nikesh Arora, and Jack Hughes.

The India-US trade talks come when there is a new issue following the US Supreme Court rescinding Trump’s use of emergency powers under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose sweeping tariffs on February 20. President Trump then 
invoked Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 to impose a fresh global tariff at 10% and later also said he would raise it to the statutory ceiling of 15%. This implies 10% additional tariffs on all trading partners, over and above prevailing MFN rates, at least for 150 days.

Reportedly, this impacts talks already underway in Washington, DC, between the Indian and US negotiators to finalise a timeline and the legal text of an interim bilateral trade agreement. This was part of a big announcement jointly made by India and US on 6th  February. Nearly 50% tariffs were to be reduced to 18% and lower.