As the India-USA Commercial Dialogue gets underway in Delhi — after a hiatus of three years — with the visit of the US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo to India between 7-10 March, much is visibly at stake to take forward the discussions on cooperation in various sectors that could unlock new trade and investment opportunities between the two countries. Raimondo who is visiting New Delhi on the invitation of Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, will also participate in the CEO Forum which was soft-launched by the two ministers on 9th November 2022 via video-conference, with thrust on increasing supply chain resilience, enhancing energy security and reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions, advancing inclusive digital trade and facilitating post-pandemic economic recovery, especially for small businesses.
“This is an optimistic time for US-India relations, and I am excited to visit India during such a special time of year, the celebration of Holi,” a US embassy press statement quoted Raimondo as saying ahead of the India visit. “Through the CEO Forum, the Commercial Dialogue and IPEF, we are making excellent progress in bringing our countries closer together by creating new markets for trade, expanding those that already exist,” Raimondo said.
The exercise will be shaped against tectonic shifts in the global and geopolitical landscape since the last India-USA Commercial Dialogue was held in February 2019 as a cooperative undertaking encompassing regular government-to-government meetings to be held in conjunction with private sector meetings with an aim to facilitate trade and maximize investment opportunities across a broad range of economic sectors. Since then a pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict have ravaged the global social, political and economic systems, trade and businesses and a belligerent China has also pushed infrastructure, digital trade, green technology and supply chain resilience as the core agenda of India-US cooperation in the US Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) launched in May 2022 with India as one of the partners.
Now with India holding the G20 presidency in 2023, the proposed re-launch of the Commercial Dialogue will likely have New Delhi and the US directing efforts towards further intensifying to achieve global growth objectives that are inclusive, sustainable, centered on critical and emerging technologies, resilient supply chains and climate action. On a more favourable note, the Commercial Dialogue comes at a time when the triumvirate of trade, business and economy have deepened their prominence in the matrix of India-US multifaceted relations.
A closer look at the “2023 Trade Policy Agenda and 2022 Annual Report of the President of the United States on the Trade Agreements Program” released by the office of the United States Trade Representative on 1 March 2023 and a copy of which is with the Daily Guardian, underlines the “dynamic and important trade and investment relationship that India the United States share” and the discussions at the 13th meeting of the TPF in Washington on the “tremendous potential for growth between our economies and how we can work together to bring a impact to working people in both countries”.