14th Ministerial-level meeting of the India-United States Trade Policy Forum held in New Delhi - (12 Jan 2024)

Commercial

The 14th Ministerial-level meeting of the India-United States Trade Policy Forum (TPF) was held in New Delhi, India on January 12, 2024. Minister of Commerce and Industry, India, Shri Piyush Goyal and U.S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Katherine Tai co-chaired the TPF meeting. The Ministers underlined the significance of the TPF in forging robust bilateral trade ties and in enhancing the overall economic relationship. The Ministers underlined the significance of the TPF in forging a robust economic relationship.

The Ministers committed to pursue foundation to launch future Joint Initiatives in certain areas, including critical minerals, customs and trade facilitation, supply chains, and trade in high tech products, in which the United States and India will develop an ambitious and forward-looking roadmap for enhanced cooperation in order to achieve economically meaningful outcomes. The Ministers agreed to establish a Joint Facilitative Mechanism (JFM) to mitigate non-tariff barriers which would pursue mutually recognition of results from International Laboratories and establish mutual recognition arrangements (MRAs), on a bilateral basis whenever possible. This would eliminate duplicative testing requirements and reduce compliance costs for trade in high-quality goods.

The Ministers acknowledged the constructive engagement of the Services Working Group under the Trade Policy Forum. The Ministers emphasized that bilateral cooperation on digital trade and services should support the growth of their dynamic economies, while also addressing shared challenges and providing tangible benefits for workers and small businesses. As vibrant democracies, both India and USA are natural partners and have trade complementarities, long standing strategic and economic relationship, and people to people contact. The two countries are also collaborating under the QUAD, I2U2 (India-Israel/ UAE-USA) and IPEF (Indo-Pacific Economic Framework) and Commercial Dialogue. Regular exchanges at the leadership-level have been an integral element of the expanding bilateral engagement.

Tags : TPF SIGNIFICANCE MEETING