Commerce Secy meets deputy USTR Joseph Barloon; discusses WTO issues, bilateral trade
Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal on Wednesday held a meeting with Deputy US Trade Representative Joseph Barloon, and discussed issues related to the WTO’s ministerial conference and ways to further expand bilateral trade ties.
The meeting was held in Yaounde, the capital city of Cameroon. Both are in the African nation for the 14th ministerial conference (MC14) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The four-day meet will start on March 26. They had detailed discussions on the “MC14 agenda and explored strategic ways to further deepen our economic cooperation and bilateral trade ties”, the Department of Commerce said in a social media post.
The meeting is important as the two countries have finalised a framework for the first phase of the bilateral trade agreement. It has not yet been signed.
India and the US announced a trade deal on February 2. A joint statement for the same was released on February 7. India remains engaged with the US for a mutually beneficial trade agreement. According to the framework, the US had agreed to reduce tariffs on India to 18 per cent.
However, the tariff architecture in the US has changed following its Supreme Court ruling against President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs. After that, the US President imposed 10 percent tariffs on all countries for 150 days from February 24.
In view of these changes, a meeting of the chief negotiators of India and the US has been postponed. They were scheduled to meet last month to finalise the legal text of the pact, which was expected to be signed this month.
An official has earlier stated that the interim trade agreement between India and the US will be signed once the new global tariff architecture of America is in place.
