On the social front, the administration has introduced changes aimed at, what it calls, preventing illegal immigration. But the moves are primarily targeted at blocking and creating more hurdles in the way of the movement of skilled professionals under the H-1B visa facility.
Not surprisingly, the growing clamor in the US is that the trade forum meetings have not delivered much.
But, a more practical difficulty is that Trump is yet to fill key positions in the trade department, including deputy US Trade Representative, a key trade official in bilateral meetings, livemint reported.
India and the US have sparred at the World Trade Organization on bitter trade disputes over issues such as solar panel, poultry, and steel. The US, in particular, has voiced against India's "trade restrictive" policies in pharmaceuticals, IT and IPR.
"It is important that barriers be removed to the export of US goods into your markets and that we reduce our trade deficit with your country," Trump said at the briefing with Modi.
But the joint statement strangely did not say anything about the H-1B visas, ignoring India's concerns altogether. India enjoyed a trade surplus of $20 billion in 2016-17 with the US with exports to the tune of over $42 billion in the same financial year.
The trade policy forum was established in 2005, seeking to resolve outstanding bilateral issues between the two countries and promote trade and investment through focused discussions under various working groups such as on agriculture, tariff and non-tariff barriers, services, investment, and innovation.
The 10th forum meeting was held in New Delhi between India's trade minister Nirmala Sitharaman and then US Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman in October last year.
