Washington, DC

On February 23, a U.S. delegation of the Private Sector Advisory Group (PSAG) of the Trade Policy Forum (TPF) led by Dr. Fred Bergsten, its Co-Chair and including Mr. Robert Vastine, President of the Coalition of Service Industries, Mr. Ron Somers, President of the USIBC, Ms. Charlene Barshefsky, former Deputy USTR, Mr. Arvind Subramanian, Peterson Institute of International Economics and Ms. Anku Nath of USIBC called on Ambassador Ms. Nirupama Rao.

The delegation briefed the Ambassador on PSAG’s activities; on the follow up implementation of its last report submitted to the  Trade Policy Forum (TPF) leadership in January, 2011; and shared its thoughts on advancing bilateral trade and economic engagement to the next level.

Ambassador appreciated the very constructive  role that the PSAG has been playing in strengthening the TPF process through its detailed and progressive recommendations. She emphasized that there was a continued need to focus on the big picture  of the relationship.  She said that in this context the Ministerial Trade Policy Forum is an important platform to consider PSAG’s recommendations on strengthening overall bilateral trade and commercial cooperation and expressed the hope that the TPF would hold it's next meeting soon.