US secretary of commerce Howard Lutnick made an unscheduled visit to New Delhi on Thursday. He met his Indian counterpart commerce minister Piyush Goyal, days after the US Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariff, slowing down progress on bilateral trade agreement.

“Hosted US Secretary of Commerce @HowardLutnick & @USAmbIndia Sergio Gor. Engaged in very fruitful discussions to expand our trade and economic partnership,” Goyal said in a social media post.

A US embassy spokesman in New Delhi confirmed to Bloomberg that Lutnick was in the capital for a “brief stop” but declined to comment further.

The US and India announced an interim trade agreement earlier this month, lowering tariffs on Indian goods from 50 per cent to 25 per cent before eventually settling at 18 per cent. The accord followed several rounds of discussion, though the two sides have yet to finalise and sign the deal.

Chief negotiators of both sides were scheduled to meet this week in Washington to finalise the legal text for the pact, but it was postponed after Supreme Court order.

The two countries were scheduled to sign the first phase of the deal next month and continue negotiating a comprehensive bilateral trade agreement.

After the court order, Trump has warned countries to honour the deals agreed so far and has threatened higher tariffs on goods from nations that “play games”.

The administration imposed a 10 per cent tariff on all countries for 150 days, with effect from February 24. Trump also threatened to increase it to 15 per cent, but there is no official order on that yet.

On Tuesday, Goyal had said that talks would resume “as soon as” there is more clarity on the tariffs front in the US.

The lack of clarity on the tariffs has sparked confusion globally. Countries and corporations are pouring over existing trade agreements to assess how they would fare under his latest threats. Major trading partners, including the European Union and India, have abruptly halted ongoing trade negotiations amid the uncertainty.

The Supreme Court order was a major setback to Trump’s pivotal economic agenda in his second term. The Court ruled that the tariffs imposed by Trump on nations around the world were illegal and that the president had exceeded his authority when he imposed the sweeping levies by using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) of 1977.