Indo US bilateral trade set to cross 200 billion US dollars in 2023

The Indo US bilateral trade in goods and services is likely to surpass 200 billion US dollars during the calendar year 2023 despite a challenging global trade environment a  joint statement issued at the end of the 14th Ministerial-level meeting of the India-United States Trade Policy Forum (TPF)  held in New Delhi, India on January 12. Commerce Minister PiyushGoyal and U.S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Katherine Tai co-chaired the TPF meeting.

Both the Ministers acknowledged that considering the size of their economies, significant potential remains unrealized and expressed their mutual desire to further enhance engagement with the goal of continuing to increase and diversify bilateral trade.

The Ministers took stock of the significant progress made in addressing concerns impacting the bilateral trade relationship since the 13th TPF held in January 2023. This was highlighted by the historic settlement of all seven longstanding trade disputes at the World Trade Organization (WTO) between the two countries as well as the understandings on market access related to products of significance to the bilateral trade relationship. These outcomes were delivered in the context of the historic state visit of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the United States in June 2023 and subsequently during the visit of U.S. President Biden to India for the G20 Summit in September 2023.

They expressed their intent to continue to work together on resolving outstanding trade issues and highlighted both progress and upcoming engagement on a select number of those issues including Non-Agricultural Goods

The Ministers agreed to establish a pathway in which India and the United States will mutually recognize results from accredited conformity assessment bodies utilizing International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) and International Accreditation Forum (IAF) mutual recognition arrangements (MRAs), on a bilateral basis whenever possible. This will allow labs and conformity assessment bodies to certify that products are compliant with certain standards. This would eliminate duplicative testing requirements and reduce compliance costs for trade in high-quality goods. The Ministers committed to identify priority sectors of mutual interest for implementation and establish a Joint Facilitative Mechanism (JFM) for the same, the terms of reference of which will be finalized at the earliest.

The Ministers welcomed the finalization of the Turtle Excluder Device (TED) design developed with the technical support of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The collaboration between India and the United States to expedite the TED demonstrations will confirm that the TED design effectively minimizes the impact of commercial shrimp trawl operations on sea turtle populations.. Both sides acknowledged that the timely completion of the field demonstrations could contribute to the sustainable management and protection of marine and coastal ecosystems, thereby fostering enhanced seafood trade between the two countries.

The Ministers acknowledged the ongoing discussions related to ensuring patient access to affordable medical devices, including through the Trade Margin Rationalization (TMR) approach. They also emphasized the importance of enhancing engagement to address measures that could negatively impact the ongoing trade in the sector, such as standards and pricing issues for medical devices, including for cardiac stents and knee implants. The Ministers noted that this engagement would facilitate access to cutting-edge medical technology for patients. The Ministers shared concerns related to the overdependence and lack of diversity in Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients within the global pharmaceutical supply chain and welcomed the opportunity to collaborate to de-risk and diversify with a focus on Key Starting Materials.