India, US to collaborate on harmonisation of product standards

India and the US will work towards harmonisation of product standards and improving ease of doing business, a top US official today said.
A M Kumar, Assistant Secretary, Global Markets & Director General, US and Foreign Commercial Service, US Department of Commerce, said India-US bilateral trade reached USD 109 billion in 2015, and that India was among the top 10 growing sources of FDI in the US in 2015, reaching USD 11.5 billion.
He was speaking at a 'Roundtable on Standards and Conformity Assessment', which observed that harmonisation of product standards will be one of the four major India-US joint policy objectives. The roundtable is being held on the sidelines of the India-US Strategic and Commercial Dialogue.

"In addition to the harmonization of product standards, India and the US will also work on improving the ease of doing business, leveraging the US experience for developing Smart Cities in India, and fostering innovation and entrepreneurship," Kumar said at the event organised by CII.
He also noted that the adoption of market and performance driven standards can benefit initiatives like Make in India.
Heather Lanigan, Country Manager - South Asia, US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), emphasized the importance of standards across different sectors like energy, telecommunications and infrastructure.

"Indian industry needs to adapt to meet increasingly stringent standards to boost its export competitiveness, or we will be left behind in the global trade race," CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said.

"India is committed to conform to global standards and adopt best case practices to enable a smooth flow of products. Standards are going to be the new norm in bilateral trade," Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce Alok Chaturvedi said.
Leslie McDermott, Director of International Development, American National Standards Institute (ANSI) said that the inclusion of standards in the work stream of the India-US Strategic and Commercial Dialogue would encourage bilateral trade.