New dialogues can unlock new era in India-US business ties: USIBC

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Welcoming the announcements on the US-India Strategic Trade Dialogue and an agreement on semiconductors, US India Business Council on Friday said such initiatives have the potential to unlock a new era of business-to-business cooperation.

During the visit of US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to New Delhi, the two countries announced the start of the US-India Strategic Trade Dialogue and signed an MOU on semiconductors.

The dialogue adds momentum to the work being done under the US-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET), said USIBC president Atul Keshap.

These are moves welcomed by the industry, who have long encouraged both governments to reinvigorate talks around high-technologies and export controls to remove barriers to greater business partnerships in advanced sectors, he said.

Addressing the issues around export controls and technology transfers is a critical step to unleashing the ambitions of the private sector. If these dialogues succeed, they can unlock a new era of business-to-business cooperation in co-development and co-production for advanced commercial and strategic technologies.

It is these partnerships in high-value industries that will ultimately pave the way to our shared goal of USD 500 billion in bilateral trade, Keshap said.

USIBC is optimistic that the new Strategic Trade Dialogue will help expand and intensify technological and intellectual exchange at a time when our great democracies must work ever more closely together, he said.

We are delighted that Secretary Raimondo and Minister for External Affairs Dr S Jaishankar are taking concrete steps to enhance technological cooperation in our two countries' high-trust partnership, he said.

Applauding Raimondo and Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on their MoU on semiconductors, Keshap said members of USIBC are supportive of India's ambitions to integrate into global semiconductor value chains specifically in the areas of packaging, assembly, and testing.

USIBC is providing a platform for dialogue to address some of the current policy and infrastructural impediments to developing that semiconductor ecosystem so that India can realise those ambitions and seize its techade', he said.

Keshap said the semiconductor MoU is a very welcome move, and this is one of those areas where government and industry are closely aligned.

The national security establishments and the private sector are both looking to address our vulnerabilities in this area. That's why you're seeing a historic level of public-private cooperation to develop these critical capabilities around semiconductor manufacturing, packaging, research and design within our high-trust ecosystem, Keshap said.