India can take advantage of US-China trade war to attract investments, but it has to do more: USIBC chief

Amid rising concerns over falling growth of Indian economy, US-India Business Council (USIBC) President and former assistant secretary State Nisha Biswal has said India can take advantage of China-US trade to push investments but it has to do more to attract investments.

Talking to ANI, on the sidelines of Indian Ocean conference, Biswal said: "We are in a global environment where we are seeing economic headwinds around the world in major economies in midst of that it's not surprising India is also facing some challenges. I think India could be beneficiary in a global environment where companies are hesitant to invest more in China because they are looking for a trade war between the US and China. To resolve itself they should be looking more aggressively at India but they are not as ambitious as India needs to do more to attract those companies".

"I like to see India that is putting forward an economic vision and a sort of incentive to drive more investment," Biswal added.

Speaking on trade imbalance which is time and again raised by US President Donald Trump, she said: "I know President has been focusing on trade imbalance, I would actually say that both US and India have a far greater imbalance with China than they do with each other."

Biswal further expressed concern saying the trade imbalance is expected to "go down further".

Actually we are seeing trade imbalance between India and the US diminish slightly and that's an encouraging sign as you see India procuring more and more energy from the United States. I am confident that trade imbalance is going to go down further," Biswal added.

She said the United States wants to invest more in India.

She further told ANI "President Trump is intending to create right access points to really grow that trade and investment. We want to see Americans companies grow in India, invest more in India and also want to make sure the US is welcoming and hospitable to Indian companies."

On pending trade talks Biswal said, "I am hopeful, I don't know whether the date has been set but both leaders said they want it to be resolved, I think the industry wants to see those results and I know it's not that hard.