Karnataka - Bangalore

Largest-ever U.S. trade team coming to India

Bureau

Bangalore: After agreeing to the civilian nuclear technology supply to India, the U.S. is now aiming at consolidating its business and trade ties through the five-day visit of a high-powered Business Development Mission, led by Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Frank L. Lavin.

The team will arrive in Mumbai on November 28. The 200-strong delegation, said to be the largest overseas mission ever to any country from the U.S., will be visiting Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Kolkata to identify key areas for long-term partnership. Apart from the timing, the visit assumes special significance with the Indo-U.S. trade witnessing a double-digit growth at 20 and 22 per cent respectively in the last two years. Indo-U.S. trade is estimated at $ 24 billion with the U.S. being the largest foreign direct investor, importing more at $ 17.3 billion against its exports of $ 6.44 billion last year, said Sreedhar Kavil, Vice-Chairman, United States Indian American Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Business Mission.

Long-term strategy

He told The Hindu-Business Line that the U.S. Business Mission's seriousness in forging long-term business relationship could be gauged from the proposal of a follow-up mechanism that would assess the feasibility of cooperation in different areas before finalising the strategy for final investment decisions, he said.

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