US biz frequently raises issues like market access, high tariffs in India: USTR Katherine Tai

Joe Biden's administration has been asking New Delhi to make it easier for the US companies to do business in India

President Joe Biden’s administration has once again conveyed to New Delhi the concerns of the United States companies over hurdles in doing business in India – restrictive market access, high tariff and unpredictable regulatory requirement – on the eve of the relaunch of the Trade Policy Forum on Tuesday.

“Our bilateral trade never seems to have lived up to its potential,” the US Trade Representative, Katherine Tai said in New Delhi on Monday.

“We hear very frequently from our stakeholders, who are not shy on issues that will be familiar to those of you involved in moving goods and services between our two countries – market access, high tariff, unpredictable regulatory requirements and restrictive digital trade measures,” she said, after a meeting with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, her counterpart in the Government of India. “They would be on top of my list when I am here,” said Tai, who on Monday commenced her first visit to New Delhi after taking over as the US Trade Representative on March 18 this year.

Goyal hosted Tai to a dinner ahead of the formal relaunch of the India-US Trade Policy Forum, which had not been convened since 2017, as Donald Trump’s administration in Washington had not been interested in managing bilateral trade issues through it.

“This Trade Policy Forum is only the beginning of a new chapter in our trade ties,” said the Commerce and Industry Minister. “Hope we will be able to revitalise this platform to resolve outstanding issues in an amicable manner and send a strong message that India-US partnership is stronger than ever before.”

Modi and Biden agreed during their first in-person meeting in Washington on September 24 that the India-US Trade Policy Forum would be reconvened to “enhance the bilateral trade relationship by addressing trade concerns, identifying specific areas for increased engagement and developing an ambitious, shared vision for the future of the trade relationship”.

India and the US have been trying to negotiate a trade deal since 2018. The two sides were close to signing one during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with the then-US President Donald Trump in New York in September 2019, but they could not narrow down differences on certain key issues. A “mini trade deal” with “limited scope” was then expected to be inked after the Trump-Modi meeting in New Delhi on February 25, 2020, but it was also shelved.

Goyal is expected to ask Tai for greater market access for India in the US, particularly for the automobile, engineering and agricultural products.

President Joe Biden's administration too has been asking New Delhi to make it easier for the US companies to do business in India.

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