Goyal to meet USTR to discuss trade issues on Wednesday

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal will meet his US counterpart Robert Lighthize on Wednesday in Washington to discuss trade related issues, an official statement said.

"On November 13, Goyal will have India-US bilateral meeting with his counterpart US Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer to discuss the outstanding bilateral issues and to arrive at a shared understating on a mutually beneficial basis," the statement said on Saturday.

Next day, the minister will hold high-level industry interaction with business and industry representatives in New York.

On November 12, the minister is scheduled to have a meeting with representatives of the medical devices manufacturing companies to discuss the trade issues.

Goyal will also attend 9th BRICS Trade Ministers Meet in Brasilia on November 11.

Discussions will be focussed on opportunities for enhanced intra-BRICS trade and investment cooperation, it said.

"Issues like cooperation in e-commerce, investment facilitation, MSMEs, Intellectual Property Right, will be discussed during the meet," it added.

Deliberations on the current global economic and trade environment, challenges facing the multilateral trading system, ways of advancing the BRICS trade and investment cooperation will also take place.

An MoU will be inked among Trade and Investment Promotion Agencies of BRICS countries, which will help foster close collaboration.