US trade body forges alliance with India
Tuesday, 27 April 2004, 19:30 IST
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WASHINGTON: In a major boost to India-US trade, the US Chamber of Commerce has forged a partnership with its Indian counterparts to spur trade cooperation between the two countries. The focus of the partnership is to enable the entry of small and medium-sized US firms into the Indian market, increase purchases of American products and expand job-creating Indian investments in the US, US Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Thomas Donohue said Monday. The US Chamber's initiative identified the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) as its partners to realise the objective of "leveraging existing resources in both countries through public-private cooperation". Donohue said within a year the US Chamber proposed to organise sufficient activity in the form of trade missions, video-conferences and seminars, shared websites and other network building devices to accelerate bilateral trade. Donohue was addressing a press conference here at the Chamber of Commerce building after returning from a weeklong trip to India, which included meetings with senior officials and the business community in New Delhi and Bangalore. During his trip, he also called for a second generation of market reforms, especially in the area of counterfeiting and piracy. He said the US Chamber and FICCI had agreed to share information and contribute to each other's studies and analyses of the impact of piracy at home and abroad. They would also share analyses of legislation, regulations and other measures taken or proposed to combat piracy and counterfeiting in each country. Besides this, both the chambers could organise major joint public education programmes in the two countries to highlight the costs and risks of counterfeiting and piracy.
Source: IANS
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