Inviting American businesses to invest in India, Federal Commerce and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has said a target of $500 billion for US-India bilateral trade in five years is “eminently doable”.
“The bilateral trade between US & India grew from $126 billion in 2017 to $145 billion in 2019. The target we have set of $500 billion in the next five years is eminently doable”, Goyal said while addressing the USA’s Summit on Global Financial & Investment Leadership.
“We are partners who trust each other and we can make rapid strides to provide a trusted source to American businesses to work with a country which is transparent where there is rule-based trading and dialogue”, Goyal added.
During the summit, in which Goyal participated virtually, he also apprised the business community of the various sectoral reforms that India has undertaken in the recent past.
“India is undertaking efforts to reform the Indian systems of governance, policies, and laws around mining, space technology, defence, banking, financial sectors, labour, and agriculture. We have embarked on a new journey which will take India to levels never seen before”, said Goyal.
India has been negotiating a trade deal with the United States since it withdrew from the China-led free trade agreement between Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries and six other nations – India, China, Japan, Australia, South Korea, and New Zealand.
It was expected that the US and India would sign at least a limited trade deal during US President Donald Trump’s visit in February of this year. However, the deal did not come to pass.
Maintaining that higher tariffs are imposed on US products by India, the Trump administration demanded a greater leeway on items like chicken legs and wanted access to the Indian dairy market. India, for its part, wanted a revocation of the GSP ban.
The Trump administration withdrew Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) status from India last June, impacting Indian exports worth $5.6 billion. Under the GSP, the US had been providing duty-free access to around 2,000 Indian products.
