India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has firmly defended New Delhi's import restrictions on laptops, tablets and servers, after the US Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai raised the matter at the 14th Ministerial-level meeting of the India-United States Trade Policy Forum (TPF) co-chaired by both the delegates in New Delhi on Friday.
"Minister Goyal described India’s objectives, including those related to national security concerns," the joint statement said.
Major American companies such as Apple, Dell and Lenovo have been affected by New Delhi's decision, which kicked in last August.
At the meeting, Goyal also asked Tai to lift the import ban on wild caught shrimps, according to the joint statement.
New Delhi told Washington that removing the import ban was a “significant ask” for Indian fishermen as the US ranked as India’s top export market for shrimps.
Goyal also reiterated New Delhi’s longstanding demand about being reinstated in Washington’s Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) program, which provides duty-free access for certain imports from low and middle-income nations.
India was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the GSP programme before it was removed from it by the previous Donald Trump administration in 2019.
At the TPF, Goyal also highlighted “challenges” faced by Indian business investors in getting a US visa and requested Tai to augment visa processing.
Further, the Indian minister also flagged issues faced by Indian professionals because of their qualifications not being recognised in the US job market, the joint statement said.
Goyal also demanded an increase in the number of inspections by US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspectors in order to help Indian pharmaceutical exports.
He noted that the US ranked as India’s top export market for pharmaceuticals and that exports had been growing at a rate of 6.7 percent in the last five years.
"In the backdrop of pandemic, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) had stopped conducting inspections and audit in India for a long period, and resumed later, which resulted in huge backlog impacting product approvals and unit approvals/renewal," the joint statement underscored.