US Trade Representative Tai to travel to New Delhi next week for US-India trade policy forum ministerial meet

New Delhi next week and will co-chair the ministerial-level meeting of the United States-India Trade Policy Forum with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal.

Ambassador Tai will travel to India from January 12-14 and begin her trip with a meeting with Goyal. She is also scheduled to meet Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar later.

On January 13, Tai will meet with civil society representatives, business leaders, and stakeholders to discuss the Biden-Harris Administration’s engagement and commitment to fostering closer ties between the two countries.

Tai’s visit marks the first trip to India in the new year by a senior Biden administration official.

Tai and Goyal will co-chair the 14th ministerial-level meeting of the United States-India Trade Policy Forum (TPF). During this year’s meeting, Tai and Goyal will “discuss a broad set of issues to enhance the resiliency of the trade relationship, including agriculture, industrial products, services, and the protection of intellectual property, among other topics,” a statement issued by the Office of the US Trade Representative said Friday.

Last year, Goyal and Tai had co-chaired the 13th ministerial-level meeting of India-United States Trade Policy Forum in Washington DC on January 11. During his January 9-11 visit to the US last year, Goyal had also met with CEOs, addressed the Indian community and held roundtable meetings with business leaders and think tanks in New York.

The 12th TPF Ministerial meeting was held in November 2021 after a gap of four years in New Delhi.

The Trade Policy Forum was established in 2010 and plays an important role in strengthening and expanding the bilateral economic and trade relationship.

Under the leadership of Tai and Goyal, the Trade Policy Forum has helped remove trade barriers and facilitate cooperation on key issues, the statement said.

The statement added that the United States-India trade relationship continues to grow stronger and benefit both nations throughout the past year as Tai and Goyal reached several "milestone" agreements that deliver crucial market access for American farmers and producers, and high quality products to Indian consumers.

These included a 70 per cent reduction of the tariff on pecans, the removal of retaliatory tariffs on almonds, apples, chickpeas, lentils and walnuts, boric acid and diagnostic reagents, and commitments for additional tariff reductions on frozen turkey, frozen duck, as well as fresh, frozen, dried, and processed blueberries and cranberries.

The United States and India also reached agreements to resolve all seven of their outstanding World Trade Organization disputes.