United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai to visit India on November 22

United States Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai will travel to India next month to discuss the US’ commitment to the Indo-Pacific region with government officials and stakeholders.

This will be Tai’s first official visit to India.

Tai will begin her Asia trip from Tokyo on November 15 and reach New Delhi on November 22 from South Korea, the USTR said on Friday.


“USTR Katherine Tai and Deputy USTR Sarah Bianchi will travel to Tokyo, Seoul, and New Delhi to meet with government officials and stakeholders to discuss the enduring US commitment to the Indo-Pacific region and to strengthen trade and economic relationships with key allies and partners," USTR said in a statement.
Tai will return to Washington, DC on November 24.

The visit comes amid the two sides planning to hold the India-US Trade Policy Forum, after four years, wherein key bilateral trade issues especially the ones related to intellectual property rights are expected to be taken up.

Washington has partially supported the India-South Africa proposal on waiver of certain provisions of copyrights, industrial designs, patents and protection of undisclosed information in the Trade-Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement for prevention, containment or treatment of Covid-19. It is now sponsored by 64 WTO members.

Tai’s visit also assumes significance as the ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization is being held from November 30-December 3 in which the members want to to reach an agreement on the global response to the pandemic and India wants the waiver proposal to be part of the response.