Obama means business on India visit

US president Barack Obama's trip to Asia, beginning later this week, will be focused on efforts to open up new markets for American goods and strengthen the US economy, administration officials said on Monday.

Meanwhile, ahead of Obama's maiden visit to India, corporate America as represented by the influential US-India Business Council has announced a five-point wish-list which it says is the key for advancing the economic relationship between the world's largest free-market democracies.
 
The five-point list seeks removal of barriers to high technology trade; interventions to 'grow' agriculture; and infrastructure collaborations, including mobilisation of new capital markets to fund India's enormous urbanisation requirements.
 
It also calls for educational collaborations, including vocational training, research and K-12 schooling; and proposes a first-of-its kind free trade agreement to unleash the synergies that American and Indian industry so uniquely share - innovation and knowledge.
 
"It is high time we begin treating one another as genuine partners - both in terms of our strategic relationship - in defence, security, and in space, as well as in our very special knowledge partnership," USIBC president Ron Somers said in Washington before leaving for India on Monday evening.
 
The White House too had made clear that the economic dimension of Indo-US relationship would be top on the agenda of president Obama. "Business is leading the way as it should, as it always has done in pioneering the contours and pushing the envelope of this unique partnership," Somers said.
 
"Look back to our recent history when we collaborated to address Y2K, to when our sound business advocacy helped lift sanctions in 1998, to our shared vigilance resisting closed borders and protectionism, to our campaign to achieve US-India civil nuclear cooperation. Our aim here is to set an agenda that is forward thinking, that looks well into the coming decade. If we set our sights high, there is no doubt that, as partners, the United States and India can shape the economic destiny of the 21st Century," he said.
 
The USIBC is mounting the largest executive mission of US business leaders ever to embark from the US to attend the 6 November business summit which it is organising in Mumbai. More than 200 business leaders, including those from Fortune 200 to small and medium enterprises, are expected to attend the meeting, which would be addressed by Obama.
 
USIBC chairman, Terry McGraw - who is also chairman and chief executive officer of The McGraw Hill Companies - will lead the executive mission onwards to New Delhi, where business leaders would confer with Confederation of Indian Industry and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
 
"The president's visit to India will be historic. It is timely; it will spur interest and attract positive attention to the uniqueness of our relationship, and will achieve successes that will fundamentally alter - in a positive way - how we cooperate commercially and strategically as partners going forward," Somers said.

Despite its size, India is only the United States' 14th biggest trading partner, and Washington would like Obama's three-day visit to Mumbai and New Delhi to be a step toward unlocking its commercial potential, which could help ballast the rise of China.

The White House expects several commercial deals between US and Indian companies to be finalised during the visit, and says it is making progress in ironing out existing obstacles to greater trade between the two nations.

Obama is not visiting India's technology hubs Hyderabad and Bangalore, favorite targets of US politicians, who say shipping jobs to India and elsewhere is partly to blame for high US unemployment.

Indian officials have protested a recent hike in US visa fees that is expected to hit India's information technology industry, and proposed tax changes -- supported by Obama -- that would end breaks for US firms that create jobs and profits overseas.