Jaishankar meets U.S. Trade and Commerce Ministers

Continuing his engagement with the Biden administration , following Monday’s ‘2+2’ event, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had meetings with U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

According to the U.S. Government readout, Mr. Jaishankar and Ms. Tai took stock of India-U.S. trade ties, discussed the implications of the Russia-Ukraine war on global trade and the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (a framework , proposed by the Biden administration, for economic cooperation in the region, on issues such as emerging technologies and supply chains).

The two Ministers agreed that the Trade Policy Forum — which was re-launched after a gap of four years in November 2021 — held “substantial promise” for reducing trade barriers, including in agricultural goods. Last year’s forum resulted in Indian mangoes and pomegranates getting market access to the U.S., and American pork, pork products, alfalfa hay and cherries getting access to Indian markets.

On his meeting with Ms. Raimondo, Mr. Jaishankar said the two had discussed accelerating the economic partnership.

He tweeted, “Our goal is to enhance resilience and reliability of supply chains and enhance trust and transparency in business.”

Mr. Jaishankar and his U.S. counterpart, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, attended an interactive event with students at Howard University later on Tuesday afternoon.