- Tuesday, April 22, 2025
The 14th TPF meet was co-chaired by Indian commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal and US trade representative Katherine Tai.
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA and the US on Friday (12) discussed ways to further boost trade and investment ties between the two countries during the Trade Policy Forum (TPF) meeting in New Delhi.
The 14th TPF meet was co-chaired by Indian commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal and US trade representative Katherine Tai.
“Amidst productive deliberations, both sides reiterated their commitment to enhance trade and investment ties for adding further momentum to the growing India-US partnership,” Goyal said in a post on X.
Officials had on Thursday (11) said India would raise a number of issues with the US, such as inking social security pact, and greater market access for products like mangoes and pharma in the US during the TPF meet.
Delighted to co-chair the 14th India-US Trade Policy Forum along with US Trade Representative & my friend @AmbassadorTai.
Amidst productive deliberations both sides reiterated their commitment to enhance trade & investment ties for adding further momentum to the growing… pic.twitter.com/Owbj8sMlhx
— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) January 12, 2024
India has also planned to raise issues pertaining to delay in visa; increasing exports of table grapes, pharma goods, and marine products like wild caught fish and shrimp; reinstating the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) status to India; and export control regulations for high-tech products and technologies.
Social security, or totalisation agreement, is a long-pending demand of the country, as it will provide social security to Indian professionals in America. This would eliminate dual social security deduction, both in the home country and in the nation where an employee works.
Under this, an expatriate in either country need not contribute to the social security scheme of the host country.
It will benefit a number of Indians, particularly from the IT sector, who are working in America and paying social security but are unable to get any benefit out of it.
India is also seeking fast-tracking American health regulator USFDA’s inspections, or audit of domestic pharma firms.
United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) approval is required to sell medicines in the US market. Before giving the approval, the USFDA authorities visit premises of manufacturing units for checking quality standards.
The last TPF meeting was held in Washington in January last year.
TPF is a platform to resolve trade and investment issues between the two countries. It has five focus groups — agriculture, investment, innovation, and creativity (intellectual property rights), services, and tariff and non-tariff barriers.
The US is the largest trading partner of India. America accounts for about 20 per cent of India’s total exports in goods and is a key market for services sectors like IT.
The bilateral trade between the countries has increased to $129.4 billion (£101.5 billion) in 2022-23 from $120 billion (£94.2 billion) in 2021-22. India received $6 billion (£4.71 billion) in foreign direct investment from the US in 2022-23.
(With PTI inputs)
