Piyush Goyal meets Howard Lutnick, says held fruitful discussions to expand trade partnership

Days after India and the US rescheduled the meeting of their chief negotiators for the trade deal, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal today met with his US counterpart Howard Lutnick in New Delhi.

Goyal, without divulging much about the meeting, posted on X saying "hosted US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and Sergio Gor. Engaged in very fruitful discussions to expand our trade and economic partnership”.

Gor, the US Ambassador to India, also posted a picture of the three together. The mention of ‘trade’ and ‘economic partnership’ gave an indication that the proposed trade deal was the focal point of discussion.

Gor in his post on X said: "So many areas of cooperation for our two nations. A highly productive lunch with Howard Lutnick and Piyush Goyal".

The timing of Lutnick's visit is crucial. Not too long ago, he famously claimed in a podcast that the trade deal with India could not materialise last year because Prime Minister Narendra Modi refused to directly call Trump.

The Indian and US teams were to meet in the US on February 23; however, the meeting was postponed. The three-day meeting was to finalise the legal text for the first phase of the bilateral trade agreement between the two sides.

The meeting was rescheduled just days after the US Supreme Court ruled against the tariffs imposed by President Donald saying imposing tariffs was the call of the US Congress.

India, however, indicated that it would not withdraw from the proposed trade deal but would wait and watch. Lutnick's quiet visit comes against this backdrop.

Official sources said on Sunday the meeting of trade representatives was rescheduled as ‘time was needed’ to study the implications of the court judgement in the US. " Time was needed to evaluate latest developments and their implications," a source had said on Sunday.

Trump got infuriated and on Wednesday warned India and other countries against ‘playing games’ and walking back on trade commitments.

The Supreme Court ruling prompted several countries that struck trade deals with the US to reassess their positions. From India's perspective, the court order effectively reopened negotiating space to secure more favourable terms.

Meanwhile, the lead opposition party, the Congress, has been urging the Modi-led government “not to sign the interim trade deal with the United States”.

After the Supreme Court order, Trump last week imposed a 10 per cent tariffs on all countries, including India, from February 24 for 150 days. On Saturday, he announced a duty hike of up to 15 per cent.

Before the Supreme Court order, Trump had cut India's tariffs to 18 per cent from the crippling 25 per cent. Crucially, he did away with the additional 25 per cent tariff that was slapped on India for purchasing Russian oil.