Washington, Apr 13 (PTI) United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai held a meeting with visiting External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar Tuesday, during which they discussed bilateral trade relationship and took stock of the current situation.
Deputy United States Trade Representative Sarah Bianchi also joined the meeting, during which the two leaders took stock of current developments in US-India trade relations, as well as the implications on global trade and economic affairs of Russia’s war against Ukraine, a readout of the meeting said.
Tai and Jaishankar also shared views on President Joe Biden’s initiative to launch an Indo-Pacific Economic Framework aimed at strengthening regional economic cooperation in critical areas such as supply chain resilience, it said.
“They shared the perspective that the US-India Trade Policy Forum (TPF), re-launched in November 2021, holds substantial promise as a mechanism for expanding bilateral trade and reducing barriers, including with respect to trade in agriculture,” the USTR said in a statement.
The two leaders agreed to remain in contact on these and other issues as work continues towards a 2022 meeting of the TPF, the statement said.
Earlier this month, Ambassador Tai, testifying before the Senate Finance Committee, described India as an important trading and strategic partner of the US.
At the same time, she said that despite some sharp differences, the two countries have agreed to work together on various issues, including the market access commitments.
In the financial year 2021, the US exported over USD 1.6 billion of agricultural products to India. The total bilateral trade stood at USD 80.5 billion in 2020-21 as against USD 88.9 billion in 2019-20.
India’s exports to the US stood at USD 51.62 billion in 2020-21 as against USD 53 billion in 2019-20. India’s imports from the US stood at USD 28.9 billion in 2020-21 as against USD 35.9 billion in 2019-20, according to India’s commerce ministry data. PTI LKJ CK
