Trade body USIBC applauds launch of US India Strategic Trade Dialogue

Applauding the launch of the US-India Strategic Trade Dialogue ahead of the State Visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a top American trade body on Wednesday said the amount of energy and political capital being dedicated by both sides to address export controls and tech releasability sends signals of confidence to key business sectors and civil society.

We were very proud to have been part of the process to launch the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET) at the US Chamber of Commerce in January and are delighted that both sides have started this Strategic Trade Dialogue under the aegis of that initiative, President of the US India Business Council (USIBC) Atul Keshap said.

The inaugural India-US Strategic Trade Dialogue (IUSSTD) held here Tuesday is a key mechanism to take forward the strategic technology and trade collaborations envisaged under the India-US initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET).

The Indian delegation was led by Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra. The US delegation was co-led by Alan Estevez, Under Secretary for Industry and Security in the US Department of Commerce and Ambassador Victoria Nuland, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs in the US Department of State.

The amount of energy and political capital being dedicated by both sides to address export controls and tech releasability issues ahead of the state visit sends signals of confidence to key business sectors and civil society. It also sends a very strong message that our two systems are ready to work together to meet rising strategic challenges and ensure the pre-eminence of free societies and free enterprise, Keshap said.

This thrust around tech transfer within our high trust ecosystem demonstrates that our two governments can work effectively through complex areas of negotiation when they focus their energies and establish mechanisms like iCET to accelerate interagency coordination with full political backing from leaders. This serves as a clear model for our two systems to resolve legacy issues around market access and trade to enhance our shared prosperity, he said.

We're hopeful that progress under the iCET initiative will engender the political momentum for both governments to expand their ambitions on trade more broadly, which would reap significant benefits for workers and exporters in both our societies, helping both countries reach our shared USD500 billion bilateral trade target, Keshap said.

Ultimately, reaching this target would enhance the global competitiveness of both our countries, and demonstrate that the future of the global economy will be one anchored by democracy, free enterprise, and the rule of law, he said.

The inaugural meeting focused on ways in which both governments can facilitate the development and trade of technologies in critical domains such as semiconductors, space, telecom, quantum, AI, defence, biotech and others, a media release from the Indian embassy here said.

During the meeting, the two sides reviewed the relevant bilateral export control regulations with the objective of building and diversifying resilient supply chains for these strategic technologies. They reviewed ongoing cooperation in multilateral export control regimes and agreed to share the best practices.

Both sides agreed to enhance awareness among the industry, academia and other stakeholders about the export control regimes through workshops and other activities.

"They acknowledged that the dialogue would be instrumental to enabling co-production, co-development and enhanced industrial collaborations in critical technologies, the statement said.

They agreed to set up a regular monitoring group which will review progress in deepening cooperation in the bilateral high-tech trade and technology partnership. The co-chairs agreed to continue the dialogue with the objective of strengthening the India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership, the statement said.