NEW DELHI – United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai today attended a welcome reception in New Delhi hosted by India’s Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs & Food & Public Distribution and Textiles Piyush Goyal.
Ambassador Tai’s opening remarks as prepared for delivery are below:
Minister Goyal, thank you for the kind introduction. I want to begin by expressing my sincere thanks to you for hosting this reception and bringing together a diverse group of stakeholders during this visit to New Delhi.
The trade relationship between our two countries is a priority, both for President Biden and for me. That’s why it was important for me to come to India and relaunch the Trade Policy Forum on my first trip to Asia.
I know that all of you in this room are similarly invested in the trade relationship.
You are putting in the hard work to build commercial ventures, navigate the trading system, and strengthen ties between our countries on a daily basis. The TPF was created to foster those same activities.
There is huge potential for growth between our two economies in areas like the digital economy, services, health-related trade, and even agriculture.
I believe that a revived TPF can help our trade relationship keep pace with other important aspects of the U.S.-India partnership. But it’s clear that bilateral trade is not living up to its potential.
At USTR, we hear frequently from our stakeholders on issues that will be familiar to those of you involved in moving goods and services between our two countries: market access restrictions, high tariffs, unpredictable regulatory requirements, and restrictive digital trade measures. These are issues where we need to make progress and they will be on the top of my list while I’m here.
I’m also looking forward to discussing how further collaboration on worker-centric policies can be benefit our trade relationship.
President Biden and I are convinced that U.S. trade policy requires a fundamental shift to ensure that our policies and actions focus on the impact that trade and trade agreements have on real, working people.
Part of that means engaging in new ways with you all, and my Indian government colleagues, to connect trade more directly to working people.
India and the U.S. also face shared challenges in areas like climate change, vulnerable supply chains, and promoting market-oriented principles and structures. These areas are ripe for closer collaboration.
So tonight, I’m looking forward to starting a robust conversation about your ambitions for the U.S.-India trade relationship.
We are committed to ensuring the trade partnership is both robust and sustainable. We have our work cut out for us and the first step is reviving the Trade Policy Forum tomorrow morning.
But delivering results and further integrating our economies will require a concerted effort from our two governments, the business community, civil society, workers, and consumers.
Thank you.
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