US & India Form New Working Group To Build Bilateral Trade

Following a meeting between India's Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai at the 13th US-India Trade Policy Forum in New Delhi, the two countries have agreed to form a new working group intended to boost bilateral trade.

• Thejoint statement releasedafter the meeting the new Working Group on Resilient Trade will focus on four main areas: facilitating trade to aid the development of supply chains, promoting sustainable and inclusive growth, expanding dialogue on good regulatory practices, and exploring how trade can support environmental protection.
• The two also agreed to develop cooperation on visa and agricultural issues, two key areas of importance for the Indian gov't.
• The US continues to strongly court India in many areas including trade as it seeks to draw the country into a more overtly pro-US/pro-Western stance with regards to Russia and China. In the short term this remains an unlikely prospect, given India's deep and complex trading and political relations with both Moscow and Beijing.