Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

New Delhi, August 17: The US Deputy Secretary of State John J Sullivan on Friday encouraged India to expel the market access barriers that unfavorably sway foreign organizations and blocks India’s own integration into worldwide supply chains.

Addressing the India-US Forum in New Delhi, Sullivan said: “While bilateral trade between the United States and India hit a new record – USD 142 billion last year – the potential for our economic partnership is far greater. As we continue our discussions on trade issues, we urge India to remove those market access barriers that adversely impact those companies outside of India … Anything that impedes India’s own integration into global supply chains.”

Since June, trade talks between the two sides had backed off after Washington moved back the benefits that New Delhi was getting a charge out of under the Generalized System of Preferences program (GSP).

The GSP, actualized since 1974, is the biggest and most established US exchange inclination plan and it permits duty-free imports for a great many items from assigned recipient nations.

On its part, India had additionally forced retaliatory levies on 25 American merchandise, after the President Donald Trump organization reported a conclusion to the particular trade treatment for India over the trade hindrances.

During US State Secretary Mike Pompeo’s visit to India in June, the two nations had recognized that trade-related contrasts should have been dealt with.

Sullivan said that ‘Quad’, a casual vital gathering comprising of four nations – US, India, Japan, and Australia – a significant system to talk about the requirement for a common and integral vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific area.

“Our engagement is also multilateral. Since November 2017, we have held four quadrilateral consultations on the Indo-Pacific with India, Japan, and Australia — known informally as the Quad. This is an important mechanism for senior officials from our four countries to discuss our shared and complementary vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific region and to explore opportunities for cooperation,” he said.

Quoting Secretary of State Michael Pompeo’s speech at the India Ideas Summit, Sullivan said Washington “believes that our two nations have a unique opportunity to move forward together, for the good of both of our peoples, the Indo-Pacific region and the world”.

“Together we are seizing this opportunity by growing our 2+2 Dialogue, working together to counter the scourge of terrorism and maintaining freedom of navigation in the South China Sea,” he remarked.

Sullivan stressed, “The new rules allow Nepal, Bangladesh, and Bhutan to trade electricity through Indian transmission lines.”

“In turn, India and Nepal are looking to construct a new transmission line which will strengthen connectivity and power security and facilitate Nepal’s clean energy export,” he said.

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