Thomas Donohue, President, US Chamber of Commerce.

Namrata Kath Hazarika | 14 Apr, 2010
Small, medium and large companies need to work in an inter-dependable way to enhance growth between Indo-US, said, Thomas Donohue, President, US Chamber of Commerce during his visit to India in New Delhi on Tuesday.

On the sidelines of the CII conference, 'Taking India-US Relationship to New Heights,' Donohue told SME Times, "There has to be interdependence between small, medium and large sized enterprises whether they are connected to any segment of the economy such as technology, healthcare, agriculture, transportation, etc,"

He added that India-US has to look for having potential relationships between the countries and find out ways and means where large, small and medium sized companies come together and collaborate in business decisions.

It is important to observe how they (SMEs) work together, Donohue added.

When asked how both the countries are resolving matters related to tariff and non-tariff barriers, he underscored, "There are significant tariff barriers in India. There are non-tariff barriers in both countries, which are intended and some are unintended. These barriers have been in place for a long-time to protect the domestic industries."

"Once the level of trust and level of trade expands, you will see both the nations' tariff barriers and non-tariff barriers reducing," he added.

Observing that exports have dropped substantially in the recent past between both the two countries, he opined that India and US would continue to grow as it comes out of the recessionary pressures and this would likely accelerate the growth of bilateral trade.

He mentioned that the peak point is to wind up the Doha trade agreement logically, which will be an explosion of growth between both the countries.

"...and if we get an investment treaty between the US and India, it will accelerate the growth in a big way. And, by taking away some long-standing obstructions of trade would also help both India-US to see continued and accelerated growth of trade and investment in future," Donohue added.

The US Chamber President assured that the interest and enthusiasm of the American private sector in India has reached an all-time high.

Donohue urged the government in both countries to catch up to private sector and put in place the right policy environment so that companies can create a surge of new joint ventures, increase investment flows in both directions, expand trade and create million of jobs and generate new tax revenues that can help address deficits in both Washington and New Delhi.

While, Praful Patel, Minister of Civil Aviation stated, “Long-term growth of both US and India depends on free trade and free enterprise. Indo-US trade growth needs to match India's rate of growth globally. India has large appetite for investment in infrastructure and US companies need to come forward to tap these opportunities."

He also stressed: "trade and commercial linkages have created people-to-people relationships that has become the driving force of bilateral relationship and organizations."

Indian industry representative and CII President, Venu Srinivasan pointed out that India-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA), will be the threshold for expansion in bilateral trade but at the moment India is no where near for signing FTA with the US.

Moreover, he urged both the countries to look for SME co-operation and said that both the countries should focus and collaborate with medium enterprises as it might work. "Medium to medium company connection rather than connecting with small to small, hopefully will be fruitful," Srinivasan added.