Nirupama Rao, India’s Foreign Secretary, will co-chair a meeting of the India-United States High Technology Cooperation Group (HTCG) with Dennis F. Hightower, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce on March 15, according to Mr. Rahul Chhabra, Minister for Press, Information and Culture.
With a focus on expanding bilateral trade in strategic and high technology areas including "sensitive items", the forum aims to provide a platform through which industry suggestions could substantively feed into inter-government meetings to be held the following day. This industry dialogue is organized in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
Speaking to The Hindu Ranjana Khanna of FICCI said that at the forum FICCI would hope to highlight export control issues. Citing the controls implied by the "Denied Persons List" of the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Statistics, Ms. Khanna added that reducing such controls would help spur trade in areas such as defence, aviation, life sciences and nanotechnology.
Apart from meetings in the Commerce Department, Ms. Rao will also be meeting senior members of the U.S. administration as well as the members of Congress. She is also slated to participate in a discussion at the Wilson Center on "Two Democracies: Defining the Essence of our Partnership".
At her State Department meetings Ms. Rao will "review the progress made on various elements of the Revised Dialogue architecture", according to Mr. Chhabra. She will also discuss plans for the visit of Indian External Affairs Ministry officials to the U.S. later this year, for the next round of Strategic Dialogue between the two countries.
Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma will also be in Washington DC on March 17-18, and in New York on March 19. Top on his agenda is a series of meetings with United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk, Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.
On March 17, Mr. Sharma and Mr. Kirk will sign the India-U.S. Trade Policy Forum Framework for Cooperation on Trade and Investment. The Framework aims facilitate trade and investment flows between the two countries, and will address five areas, according to a statement by Mr. Chhabra: tariff and non-tariff barriers, services, agriculture, investment and creativity and innovation.
The visits by both Mr. Sharma and Ms. Rao come amidst clear signs that the Prime Mininster’s state visit last November has led to a wide spectrum of engagement between India and the U.S.
Their interactions will add momentum to such industrial lobbies as the India-U.S. Private Sector Advisory Group, the Board of U.S. Council for International Business, the India Business Forum and the new India-US Economic and Financial Partnership. In particular the Partnership will be formally launched in New Delhi on April 6, by Finance Minister, Mr.Pranab Mukherjee and U.S. Treasury Secretary, Mr. Timothy Geithner.
