The U.S. and India avoided contentious issues — including tariffs, subsidies and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) — in farm sector-related talks held on Friday, and instead chose to discuss matters of common interest and potential areas of collaboration.
Incidentally, the recently held U.S-India Trade Policy Forum (TPF) meeting in Washington DC concluded without both the sides issuing a joint statement due to differences on several issues.
Concluding a week-long trade mission to India, which included meetings with the departments of agriculture and commerce, U.S. Department of Agriculture Under Secretary Ted McKinney told reporters, “Our intent was not to dive into issues where there are differences, but look at areas of commonality.”
He said issues such as IPR (including patenting of genetically modified crops in India), tariffs (reduction of ‘high’ tariffs on certain farm products in India) and subsidies (the alleged ‘huge’ farm subsidies of the US) did not figure in his talks with Indian officials. However, the official added, “just as we respect IPRs coming out of India, we would like that to be reciprocated when it comes to IPRs on US products.” On tariffs, he said “each side needs to ensure that free trade is being pursued as much as possible.”
On the joint statement not being issued after the TPF meeting, Mr. McKinney said, “there was an agreement on the agriculture portion. It was non-agriculture issues that prevented it (joint statement).”
This was Mr. McKinney’s first international trip as Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs. He led a delegation of nearly 50 business, trade association and state government leaders who held over 500 meetings with trade partners from India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, a US government statement said. “In my Ministry meetings, I was very impressed to learn of the many opportunities for enhanced partnership, which includes some urgency to find solutions through trade to help overcome food security challenges in this part of the world,” the statement quoted him as saying. “The U.S. recognizes the vast food and agricultural potential that India holds for not only itself, but for the world, and we look forward to continued success in our trading partnership to the benefit of both nations’ farmers and consumers,” he was quoted as saying.
The delegation aimed to develop collaborative partnerships, learn more about local market conditions, and jointly create business that will help to combat human and animal nutrient deficiencies in India, it said. The U.S. continues to partner with India in this endeavour through technical information exchanges and supplementing food and feed needs through trade, it added. In 2016, U.S. agricultural exports to India totalled $1.3 billion.
