India, US Establish New Trade Group To Bolster Supply Chains

With a shared objective of deepening and broadening trade, both India and the United States have established a new group to enhance the supply chain.

On Wednesday, India's Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and the US Trade Representative Ambassador Katherine Tai co-chaired the 13th ministerial-level meeting of the Trade Policy Forum (TPF) in Washington, DC. 

The joint statement after the meeting stated, "Reflecting their shared objective of deepening and broadening the US-India trade relationship, the Ministers launched a new TPF Working Group on resilient trade."

The statement added that this new group will enable officials to deepen bilateral dialogue on a range of issues that can enhance the resiliency and sustainability of the trade relationship so that it is better able to withstand current and future global challenge. 

Both ministers noted that, in advance of the next TPF Ministerial meeting, the Resilient Trade Working Group will initially focus on deepening engagement on trade facilitation, which is particularly relevant to the construction of durable and sustainable supply chains.

The ministers expressed their intent to continue to work together on resolving outstanding trade issues and highlighted upcoming engagement on a select number of those issues. 

"The United States also welcomed India’s commitment to provide public notice and comment periods as it considers new quality control orders and ensure that the measures shall not be more trade restrictive than necessary in line with the WTO TBT Agreement," it added. 

Also, the ministers acknowledged the positive impact of Trade Margin Rationalisation (TMR) on patient access to affordable medical devices during the Covid Pandemic. 

They also agreed to continue to exchange views on pricing issues for cardiac stents and knee implants that would facilitate access to cutting edge medical technology at affordable prices to the patients.

Meanwhile, India appreciated the resumption of inspections by US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and asked the US side to also resume inspections of new facilities and non-priority areas at the earliest.

India highlighted its interest in restoration of its beneficiary status under the US generalised system of preferences program.  

The United States noted that this could be considered, as warranted, in relation to the eligibility criteria determined by the US Congress, as pwe the statement.