- Thursday, February 27, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA has decided to allow imports of US pork and pork products, thereby removing a barrier to US agricultural trade which stood for a long time, US trade representative Katherine Tai and agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack on Monday (10) said.
“India’s agreement to allow U.S. pork imports for the first time is great news for U.S. producers and for Indian consumers,” Tai said in a statement.
Vilsack, on the other hand, said Washington was working to ensure that the American pork industry could begin shipping its products to India at the earliest. He said the agreement marked the culmination of two decades’ efforts seeking market access for US pork to India, Reuters added.
In 2020, the US was the world’s third-largest producer of pork and its second-largest exporter, with its global sales of pork and pork products valued at $7.7 billion (£5.6 billion).
In the 2021 fiscal, the US exported agricultural products worth over $1.6 billion (£810 million) to India.
Last November, India and the US agreed at a revived trade policy forum in New Delhi to expand trade of some agricultural products, including American cherries, alfalfa and distiller dried grains, besides Indian mangoes, grapes, shrimp, etc.
During his visit to the US in September, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi met US president Joe Biden and the duo agreed to expand ties to strengthen relations between the two countries.
However, New Delhi is still seeking restoration of its beneficiary status under the Generalized System of Preferences, the US system that gives some tariff-free access for imports from developing nations that expired at the end of 2020.
