Officials of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) are to visit India this week to further talks for the flagship bilateral Trade Policy Forum (TPF). Bilateral TPF is mainly designed to work for expanding bilateral trade and investment between India and USA. The government of India’s Ministry of Commerce & Industry and the Office of the US Trade Representative are the nodal agencies for TPF.

Christopher Wilson, Assistant USTR for Central and South Asian Affairs and Julie Callahan, Assistant USTR for Agricultural Affairs, will be in New Delhi this week. The 12th India-US TPF ministerial meeting took place in November 2021, in which the USA decided to resume mango imports from India after a two-year gap due to the pandemic. Both sides had also finalised work on market access facilitation for pomegranate arils from India.

It is estimated that India and USA will explore the possibility of enhanced market access for additional identified agricultural products. Both countries will engage on Washington’s concerns associated with regulatory approvals for the Distillers’ Dried Grains with Solubles, an animal feed ingredient.

According to media reports, the TPF working groups on trade in goods and services, agriculture, intellectual property and investment are working on plans of action and outcomes of trade on outstanding bilateral trade issues. As per the recently released data, India’s exports to the US in the April-June quarter of FY23 were at USD 21.67 billion, while imports were USD 13.43 billion.