USIBC applauds India's hold on PMA

The US India Business Council has applauded the India's decision to put on hold the Preferential Market Access policy, which of late has emerged as a major bone of contention for American lawmakers and businesses.

"India's rethink of its PMA policy sends a strong and welcome signal that India is listening to investors and that channels of communication through organisations such as the US-India Business Council are working," said the USIBC president Ron Somers, a day after the Prime Minister's Office announced that the entire PMA policy will be reviewed and will not impose domestic manufacturing requirements on the private sector.

"There are many US companies manufacturing in India, and they want to expand, but they want to do so based on market-based principles, including adequate infrastructure, business-friendly policies, and access to a skilled workforce -all elements associated with a free-market economy. A mandated approach will only drive job creators away," Somers said yesterday.

USIBC has consistently argued for market-based incentives, not mandates, to encourage manufacturing in India; specifically, USIBC supports carving out the private sector from any preferential market access manufacturing policy being considered by the Indian Government, it said in a statement.

American firms and USIBC had argued that any reference to private sector mandates should be excised from any policy.

Regarding security, the apex body of corporate Americans doing businesses in India, has suggested that high-level dialogues be convened to share best practices and protocols about how India and the United States can bolster it.