Industry body the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) today suggested that India and the US enter into a comprehensive market opening pact in goods, services and investments to boost the economic ties during President Barack Obama's visit beginning November 6.
A cooperative framework agreement for strengthening and enhancing the bilateral economic relations can be immensely helpful in boosting exports, generating investments and thereby, creating more jobs, a study by the chamber said.
"India and the US could consider launching a joint feasibility study on a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) during President Obama visit to India," CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said in a statement.
The two-way economic relationship has been expanding over the last 10 years.
Bilateral trade in goods and services has jumped more than 300 per cent from $18 billion in 2000 to over $68 billion in 2008. Cumulative American FDI in India stands at $8.2 billion. Similarly, Indian FDI in the US reached $6.6 billion for the period spanning 2000-2010.
While the growth rate is substantial, the share of each country in other’s economic portfolio remains fairly small, the study said.
"Ambitious trade targets for India and US call for reaching $320 billion by 2018. CECA may very well be the next step," Banerjee said.
India recently signed an economic partnership agreement with Japan and is currently negotiating one with EU.
A similar pact with the US would give a major boost to technology-intensive manufacturing sectors as well as encourage linkages in the mid-sized business segment he added.
Obama is scheduled to deliver a key not address at 'Business and Entrepreneurship Summit', co-organised by CII on November 6 in Mumbai.
