Question

India recently organized the sixth ministerial level of Indo-US-TPF. What is the full form of TPF?
A) Trade policy forum
B) Traditional planning force
C) Trade and payment finance
D) Technical planning force

Answer 1

Hint: The US-India Business Council and the Confederation of Indian Industry jointly sponsored the inaugural meeting of the US-India SME Forum on September 21, 2010, to advance this work plan item. Deputy US Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis and Minister Sharma spoke during the session, emphasizing the importance of SMEs in the US-India trade and investment partnership.

Complete answer:
The full form of TPF is Trade Policy Forum.
Facts from the US-India Trade Policy Forum(TPF): United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma co-chair the US-India Trade Policy Forum (TPF). The TPF is the United States and India's principal bilateral forum for discussing and resolving trade and investment concerns. Agriculture, Innovation and Creativity, Investment, Services, Tariffs, and Non-Tariff Barriers, and Tariffs and Non-Tariff Barriers are covered by five Focus Groups in the TPF.

India as a Developing Export Market:
- India is the United States' 17th largest export market. Exports to India climbed by more than 20% in the first seven months of this year compared to the same period last year.
- Between 2005 and 2009, the United States goods exports to India more than doubled, and the bilateral trade deficit was cut in half.
- One of the many reasons President Obama has praised US-India relations as one of his Administration's top priorities is India's tremendous economic development.

SMBs (Small and Medium-Sized Businesses) (SMEs): Under the auspices of the TPF, the US and India signed a Framework for Trade and Investment Cooperation in March 2010. The Framework set a work plan that included increasing chances for U.S. and Indian SMEs to grow links, participate in global supply chains, and export to and invest in each other's economies, among other things.

The exchange at the Ministerial Level:
At the ministerial level, the TPF serves as a mechanism for monitoring progress on trade and investment problems between the United States and India.

Ambassador Kirk and Minister Sharma reviewed the Focus Groups' progress reports and instructed them to step up their efforts in the months leading up to the President's November visit to India, as well as throughout the coming year, to maximize the chances of achieving priority goals in the trade and investment relationship.

Advisory Group for the Private Sector (PSAG):
The PSAG was established in 2007 as an auxiliary to the TPF, offering an institutional structure for a select group of experts from the non-governmental sector in the US and India to provide strategic input on how to deepen the two countries' economic relationship.

Note: The PSAG delivered a report to Ambassador Kirk and Minister Sharma in connection with this year's TPF, underlining the commercial benefits to both nations of negotiating a technology trade agreement and taking efforts to expand investment in logistics and infrastructure.