During a hearing on the United States Trade Policy Agenda before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai asserted that India is a key commercial and strategic partner of the US. She stated that, despite some significant disagreements, the two nations have committed to collaborate on a variety of subjects, including market access commitments. She also praised Piyush Goyal, Indian Minister for Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs & Food & Public Distribution, and Textiles.
Praising Piyush Goyal, Tai said, “He is very, very charismatic and also a very strong advocate for his country’s policies; some of which I think we will be able to strategically align with and some of which will and have proven to continue to be challenging for us.”
Concerning the disagreements, she stated that during her November trip to India, there was significant pushback from India on the matter of alleged shrimp dumping.
Last year, the US obtained access to India for pork exports, according to Tai who met Piyush Goyal at the trade forum. “It was important for us as the US Trade Representative and for me personally to go to Delhi to revive that trade policy forum,” she added.
As a consequence of the forum, the US obtained commitments from India to open up or resume trade in a number of areas for the first time. During the discussion, Goyal stated that the United States and India have recognized the need of diversifying their key supply chains and that both are set to play a key role in establishing a resilient supply chain. He also proposed taking the bilateral relationship, which has evolved in recent years, to the next level of involvement, notably through defense cooperation and the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue.
Stressing the importance of the recent meeting, Tai said, “It was the first time in four years that the Trade Policy Forum (TPF) had met at all. The last time it met in 2017, it was so fraught that the two sides did not even issue a joint statement. This time we issued a joint statement that was really robust, around five pages I think, and included important principles where we agreed to work together as well as market access commitments that we have made to each other.”
She went on to say that this will be a complex relationship for the foreseeable future. However, the Indian reaction to the Russia-Ukraine crisis is critical, and there is a need to continue to devote attention and capacity to achieve breakthroughs.
“With respect to India, India is such an important trade partner and a strategic partner. India is complicated, and we live in a complicated world. It was extremely important for us in the Biden administration to restart that trade policy forum with India and to do it at the ministerial level,” Katherine Tai said in response to a question at the hearing.
