Washington D.C. [U.S.A.], Mar. 4 : Currently on a four-day visit to the United States, along with the Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar, Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia has endorsed the plans of the Trump Administration the U.S.
economy. She also expected the Good and Service Tax (GST) to have a positive impact on India-U.S. business relations. "The plans represent an opportunity for our businesses in terms of infrastructure and the reform process that is being envisaged.
Our investment into the United States, which is coming in the manufacturing and services space, has been growing and it expands across the sectors of chemicals, pharmaceutical, not just the IT sector.
There is a large range of companies who are already invested in the United States and we think that the trigger to economy is going to create more opportunities," Teaotia said while addressing a press briefing here.
"At the same time, we felt through all the interactions that there is an appreciation of the acceleration of reforms in India.
A lot of interest on the impact of the GST, when it rolls out and the outcomes in terms of ease of doing business that people are beginning to see already and some of the American companies who have invested in India are seeing very accelerated growth rates, so there was an appreciation of that," he added.
Teaotia further entailed how the trade policy statement and the report attached with it signifies the chances of an increase in trade and investment between the two countries.
"The recognition that trade has grown over these years, something like 9 percent, and that the reform process that India has not put in place including things like the IPR policy, the Conciliation and Arbitration Act - all these are known measures that give a sense of comfort to investors.
So, we felt that there is a lot of potential to increase both trade and investment between both the countries," he said.
Foreign Secretary Jaishankar held meetings with a number of senior U.S. administration officials including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Homeland Security John F.
Kelly, National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, House speaker Paul Ryan along with meetings with senior member of the Congress. A wide range of issues were discussed during these meetings, while keeping the focus on U.S.-India relationship.
While responding to a poser on new targets and ambitions, Jaishankar said the current U.S. administration looked interested in working with India in a number of areas. "At this time a lot of it was conceptual. On the economic basket, we saw a very strong interest in growing our trade, increase in investment, in finding various ways of cooperating with each other," Jaishankar said.
The foreign secretary also interacted with American business through the US-India Business Council. He added that his visit overall has been very productive and the new administration had a very positive view of India.
Jaishankar also said there was a lot of interest in taking the India-U.S. relationship forward. He also mentioned that he extended an invitation to Tillerson and Ross to visit India at an early date, which they accepted in principal.
Jaishankar's four-day visit to the U.S. was aimed at sensitising the Trump administration about India's concerns over the security of Indian nationals in the U.S.
following a possible cut in H1B and L1 visas. This is the foreign secretary's second visit to the U.S. since the election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the U.S..
Source: ANI
