India, US take stock of issues at Trade Policy Forum

Senior officials of India and the US today took stock of bilateral trade issues in run-up to the Trade Policy Forum (TPF) meeting likely to be held next month.
"Joint Secretary Commerce and Assistant USTR (US Trade Representative) of USA discussed various issues that will be discussed in the Trade Policy Forum to be co-chaired by (Indian) Commerce Minister and USTR," the department of commerce said in a tweet.
This was a preparatory meeting for the ministerial level TPF meet which is expected in Washington next month. The deliberations are expected to prepare the ground for the forthcoming commercial dialogue between the two countries.

While the TPF meeting is chaired by USTR, the commercial dialogue is led by US commerce secretary. From Indian side, both the deliberations are chaired by commerce and industry minister.
After the Trump administration took charge, this would be the first formal interaction between trade authorities of the two sides.
The last meeting was held in October here.

The TPF was set up in 2005 to expand bilateral trade and investment. There are four working groups under this forum: intellectual property, promoting investment in manufacturing, services and agriculture.
At the previous meeting, both sides had committed to continue engagement to resolve issues related to visa, movement of professionals and totalisation pact.

Trade between the two counties increased to USD 64.51 billion in 2016-17, from USD 62.11 billion in the previous fiscal.
However, foreign direct investment from the US into India dipped to USD 2.37 billion in 2016-17 from USD 4.19 billion in 2015-16.