India-US CEO Forum and Commercial dialogue held

Why in news

• India and the United States on February 14, 2019 held the India-US CEO Forum and India-US Commercial Dialogue in New Delhi.
• The Union Minister for Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu chaired the meeting.
• However, Wilbur Ross, the Secretary of Commerce of United States, could not attend the Dialogue and Forum because of unforeseen flight cancellation. He participated in the most of the sessions remotely through teleconference.
• Suresh Prabhu and Wilbur Ross held one to one bilateral telephone conversation and discussed various aspects of India-US trade and commerce relations.

India-US CEO Forum

• The CEO Forum was co-chaired by Chairman of Tata Sons, N Chandrasekaran and President and CEO of American Tower Corporation, James D. Taiclet.
• The Indian side was represented by Secretary of Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ramesh Abhishek, while the US side was represented by the US Ambassador in India, Kenneth Juster.
• The Forum highlighted key issues that affect business entities and identified areas for closer collaboration for mutual benefit of both economies.
• The CEOs from both countries, after detailed deliberations, decided to set up working groups on financial services, healthcare and defense to suggest measures to accelerate trade and investment between the two countries.
• They provided their recommendations relating to energy, water, environment, information and communication technology, emerging technologies, digital infrastructure, entrepreneurship and inclusive growth, promoting small business, and infrastructure and manufacturing.

Note The Forum has met thrice after its reconstitution in December 2014 by the Governments of India and USA.

Other highlights of the CEO Forum and Commercial dialogue

• The sides assessed the progress made during the year 2018 on the commercial track targets and appreciated the performance in the areas of business climate, investment and travel and tourism.
• The sides expressed interest in facilitating partnerships among businesses and institutions with a view to encourage best practices, and collaboration for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in both countries.
• The US Department of Commerce has taken the initiative to organise ‘Trade Winds’ event which will bring in a lot of SMEs having interest in India in May 2019. Both sides agreed to constitute a private sector led SME initiative on the side lines of this event.
• Both the sides welcomed the appreciable development on cooperation between the Indian National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and the United States.
• They welcomed the MoU signed between National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB) of India and ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB) of the United States for cooperation in matters related to accreditation.
• They welcomed the progress made during 2018 on the MoU between the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and appreciated the utility of an India-US Standards Portal.
• They acknowledged the progress achieved under the Indian-U.S. State Spotlight Webinar Series. The successful webinars were conducted with Odisha, Michigan, Washington, Texas, and West Bengal to highlight trade and investment opportunities.
• Both sides noted the accession of India to the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty.
• They also noted the government-to-government Working Group meeting held in February 2019 to advance the agenda of the Travel and Tourism Working Group.

International /economy

Pic courtesy: PIB