Digital economy, services, health-related trade, agriculture, tariff barriers etc will be high on the U.S. agenda as India and United States revive its Trade Policy Forum (TPF) after a gap of four years, Katherine Tai, United States Trade Representative (USTR) has said today.
On her first visit to India after taking charge as USTR, Tai was speaking at the India-U.S. TPF meeting, which began in New Delhi on November 22. She has told issues involved in moving goods and services between the two countries, market access, high tariffs, unpredictable regulatory requirements and restrictive digital trade measures are all issues the U.S. delegation will be keen to discuss at the TPF.
“I am also looking for further collaborations on what we call worker-centric policies that can benefit our trade relationship. I will have the opportunity to speak with your labour minister. President Biden and I are convinced that U.S. trade policy requires a fundamental shift so that our policies and actions have a real impact on real working people, which means connecting trade directly to working people”, she says. Tai also has talked about the need to collaborate to face shared challenges in climate change and sustainability issues, vulnerable supply chains and promote market-oriented principles and structures.
Welcoming the USTR, Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs & Food & Public Distribution and Textiles has said Prime Minister Modi and President Biden have tasked them to strengthen Indian and U.S. economic ties and trade based on transparency and fairness. Reminding the hugely differing level of prosperity between the people of the U.S. and India he wanted both countries to work with a shared vision to work towards mutual prosperity of the people of both our nations.
“I do believe that India’s competitive advantages of cost, skilled manpower and the huge market domestic demand combined with American innovation and investment can become a winning partnership”, Goyal has said.
The Commerce Minister has said India had not let down any of its international commitment even during the Covid-19 disruption. “We re-jigged our business processes. As a result, today the world looks at India as a trusted partner”, he says.
Goyal wants the TPF platform to engage and amicably resolve outstanding issues and send a strong message to the world that the US and India partnership is stronger than ever before. He also said India plans to manufacture five billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines next year and help serve and secure all of humanity.
