India and the US should engage in a much bigger way and New Delhi is ready and willing to expand the economic partnership with America, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday.
He also called for setting an ambitious bilateral trade target of $1 trillion in the next 10 years.
Addressing the 4th Annual Leadership Summit of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), Piyush Goyal said though a lot of effort had gone into negotiating a trade agreement between the two countries during the previous US administration, unfortunately it did not work out.
The minister said India is negotiating an early harvest agreement with Australia, “so now it is left to the US and India to engage in a much bigger way. I would urge all of you to also impress upon your administration (that) India is ready and willing to expand our economic partnership in the spirit of reciprocity and equality.”
According to the latest data obtained from the US Trade representative office, India-US bilateral trade in goods and services from 2019 stands at $146.1 billion. Underlining the efforts of the Indian government in upgrading bilateral trade ties, Goyal asserted “we were always forthcoming.” He also pointed out how meetings with Washington and New York-based companies did not offer a fruitful return. “I made a sincere effort. Unfortunately did not work out,” Goyal said.
The current “ambitious target” follows the track laid out by Joe Biden when he was the Vice President of the ex-US President Barack Obama’s administration. During his visit to India in 2012, Biden expressed his vision to make a “five-fold” expansion in India-US trade volume. The bilateral trade then stood at $100 billion.
Now, being a part of the QUAD nations, India sees hope in progressing the interim trade negotiations that were halted mid-way after Trump lost elections in 2020. The trade talks resumed during the bilateral meetings held between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden in Washington on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA.)
