Tai, Goyal focus on various business issues at US-India TPF assembly

US Commerce Consultant Katherine Tai and Commerce & Trade Minister Piyush Goyal co-chaired the 14th India-US Commerce Coverage Discussion board on Friday the place the 2 sides mentioned methods to handle issues in quite a lot of areas together with non-tariff boundaries in agriculture and manufacturing, delays in issuance of enterprise visas, mental property rights, and a doable bilateral social safety pact.

Tai raised the difficulty of India’s new import necessities for computer systems, tablets, and servers. ”Minister Goyal described India’s goals, together with these associated to nationwide safety issues, and Ambassador Tai expressed a willingness to collaborate with India on the shared goal of provide chain resilience on this sector,” per the joint assertion launched after the meet.

India conveyed its willingness to proceed participating on this problem with the USA and different stakeholders.

“Delighted to co-chair the 14th India-US Commerce Coverage Discussion board together with US Commerce Consultant & my buddy Ambassador Tai,” Goyal tweeted after the assembly.

Tai is on a three-day go to to India and likewise scheduled to fulfill with civil society representatives, enterprise leaders, and stakeholders on Saturday to debate the Biden-Harris Administration’s engagement and dedication to fostering nearer ties between the 2 international locations, per data shared by the USTR workplace earlier.

TPF is a platform to resolve commerce and funding points between the 2 international locations and enhance bilateral financial engagement. The 5 focus areas embrace agriculture, innovation and creativity (mental property rights), funding, providers, tariffs and non-tariff boundaries.

India’s agenda for the assembly included addressing non-tariff boundaries for merchandise corresponding to desk grapes, mangoes and prescribed drugs. New Delhi additionally desires fast-tracking of enterprise visas because the delay in issuance continues regardless of the matter being taken up with the US a number of occasions. A social safety settlement, that might exempt short-term visa holders from contributing to social safety, can be being pushed by the nation.

Import authorisation

Tai, however, has been strongly pursuing the import authorisation mechanism put in place by India for PCs and tablets and is eager to know what the nation intends to do sooner or later.

The US was India’s largest buying and selling companion in 2022-23 with bilateral commerce rising 7.65 per cent to $128.55 billion from $119.5 billion in 2021-22.