EAM Jaishankar to meet US Trade Representative Katherine Tai on Tuesday

Washington [US]: India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will meet United States Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai on Tuesday (April 12).

“Ambassador Tai will meet with India’s Minister of External Affairs Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. This meeting is closed press,” US Trade Representative said in a statement on Sunday.

As per the statement, Ambassador Tai will also meet with Germany’s State Secretary for International and EU Affairs and G7/G20 Sherpa Dr Jorg Kukies.

She later will meet with Austria’s Minister for Digital and Economic Affairs Margarete Schrambock and Minister for Labor Martin Kocher, as per the US Trade Representative.

India and the US are set to hold the 2+2 dialogue between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar and their respective American counterparts on Sunday.

In November last year, USTR Katherine Tai paid her first visit to India for two days after assuming office in March last year and held discussions with officials on enhancing trade and economic ties between the two countries. Deputy US Trade Representative Sarah Bianchi accompanied her.

During the twelfth ministerial-level meeting of the India-United States Trade Policy Forum (TPF) in New Delhi, the US had marked its support for India’s ambitious goal of reaching a 20 per cent ethanol blending country in the next five years and expressed interest in supplying Ethanol to India for fuel purposes.

“The United States noted its support for India’s ambitious goal of reaching 20 percent ethanol blending with petrol by 2025 and expressed an interest in supplying ethanol to India for fuel purposes,” a joint statement from the countries informed.

This had come as Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal, and US Trade Representative had co-chaired the TPF meeting.

The Ministers had also agreed to explore ways for enhancing collaboration in implementing their respective ethanol blending programs.

In June 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the expert committee’s report on the roadmap for Ethanol Blending in India by 2025. (ANI)