India, US to soon hold trade policy forum meet

India and the US will “very soon” hold the next ministerial-level meeting of the Trade Policy Forum (TPF) in America to discuss ways for promoting trade and investment between the countries.

India and the US held the 12th TPF in New Delhi on November 23 last year.

The forum is an inter-agency collaboration led by the US Trade Representative (USTR).

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It is the principal trade dialogue between the two countries. It has five focus groups: Agriculture, Investment, Innovation and Creativity (intellectual property rights), Services, and Tariff and Non-Tariff Barriers.

“We will be having the next trade policy forum very soon in the US and in the TPF we are hoping to add further deliverables and newer areas of engagement being discussed, for which both teams have been tasked to start engaging with each other,” Goyal told reporters here.

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The minister held a bilateral meeting here with USTR Katherine Tai and US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

When asked about restoring the trade benefits under the GSP(Generalized System of Preferences) programme of the US, the Indian minister said :”I don’t think that’s an issue anymore. None of our exports have been affected by the GSP. So I think that’s not an issue; that we have even discussed in recent times, including today”.

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Talking about other meetings, the minister said he discussed ways to increase trade and economic relations with his counterparts from Vietnam and Japan.

“Areas of mutual interest were discussed, particularly with the view to expanding our exports to both these countries,” Goyal said adding there is a huge potential, particularly with Japan to further expand bilateral trade.