Facilitating Trade Ties

How do you rate the quality of trade between two nations now?

It is growing well; we are doing about a USD 100 billion right now, that is a 10% increase over USD 90 billion we did in 2011. The Vice President has set a goal of getting to USD 500 billion by 2020.

Does it not look to be too ambitious?

We have to set these kinds of objectives and goals to take it forward.

India is basically perceived as relatively difficult place to do business. Do you believe that to be true or have you seen anything different than the general perception?

I think India is a very large and complex market place. I think that most US companies would want to come here with business experience or international business experience outside the US, and that is what we encourage. We do have goals that are global, where we are supposed to help exporter fi rms as well as those who are trying to increase their commercial footprints. As always business is done best through relationships and by taking the time to establish some sort of trust

But do you find American business a little held back because of the perceived notion about India?

No. I think those firms that take the time to learn about the market, to learn about the people, to learn about the culture, especially those who have a track record outside the US and have the experience in other countries realize that they are making an investment that is going to be medium to long term. I don’t think there is any place outside the US, or maybe Europe where business is done the way it is done inside US. So if you are willing to venture outside our borders, you need to have a different mindset.

So they are already having the mindset to come and face some resistance within the Indian market place?

Let’s not forget, there is quite a dynamic Indian diaspora in the US. So you already have a lot of cultural ties of Indians who have studied in the US and then have come back to do business in India or have started business in the US. There is a base of American companies that have a cultural background in India. But those that do not have a cultural background and have an experience in international business do understand that it does take a bit more time in investment in terms of learning the market. We are here to help them find the right partner and to guide them.

How does commercial diplomacy play a role in all this?

Essentially, we are here as the foreign service of the US commerce department. Our job is to help facilitate trade and investment partnerships between US and Indian firms. So, our main mission would be to help small and medium enterprises from the US, find a local business partner who could be an agent or representative, distributor or even a joint venture partner depending on the line of business they want to pursue. At the same time we are doing a lot of outreach since I have arrived here in last September, specifically focusing on second and third tier cities, where we find that our messages are very low received by the business communities because they weren’t aware that we are open for business. We have all kinds of programs that either help them source suppliers in the US through our international buyer program or facilitate them to invest in US through our select USA program or for that matter, we also have a very dynamic co-operative counsel to facilitate travel for trade investment, tourism or education.

Tell us something about the business match-making that you facilitate?

 We do that in many ways. For example, we have a protocol with gold-key services and that is essentially a customised business appointment service where they basically fi ll out a little questionnaire. It tells us about their products and services. They find out if its appropriate for the market, and if it is, then they tell us the kind of partner they are looking for. So, we will take their company information and will shop that around to potential local representatives. We do that because we have a network of seven offices here, which is our second largest operation in China. We also have an extension to that network which is the American business corner program. These are essentially private chambers and they have registered members here doing business in the US. We will actually work through that extension network making it about 20 offices now in India where we are able to find folks who would be interested in representing a US company here. The other way, as I mentioned, would be taking Indian delegations to the US through our international buyer program or bringing the delegations of buyers from all over the world or if they are interested in investing

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 in the US we have the Select US Summit which is a US government investment program. A summit is scheduled to be held on the March 23rd and 24th 2015 in Washington DC.

What is the kind of assistance you provide to Indian firms who want to do business in the US? If there is any specific request from an Indian firm, do you also entertain it on nuclear basis or its only on a collective basis that the program works?

This is a very interesting question that you asked. I just got an email from an Indian firm based in Gujarat and they have been doing food processed business with the company that has a base in New York. There was a change in leadership in that company and they’ve been having problems in getting paid. So I have contacted our offices in New York and Thailand where the person is jumping back and forth to see if we can locate that person helping to work out a solution. So it can well be on an individual basis. We do trade shows in India as well. We have a big tax summit coming up in Delhi in November. We are bringing in different US states and will be highlighting different technologies. There are other set of local shows that we do here like food securities, renewable energy and other kind of things. We partner with our agencies, try to bring people together here or in the US and if there is an individual we can treat it as trade lead where we have a domestic network of over 100 offices to help. If an Indian company is looking for something specific in the US we will be happy to source for them.

 So what kind of sectors and businesses do you promote in India when you promote US as an investment destination?

 We are open to anything and everything. What we do as a federal government is, we provide a point of contact or serve as an information clearing house for an Indian company that could be looking say to open a cement factory at some place. We provide information online because the summit is a great opportunity to actually go and speak with academic development offices directly about their incentives and taxed breaks that are offered at the state level. We also host cities and states that come over here on an individual basis for one who wants to do trade and seminars.

Bulk of the trade between India and the US is about non-real sectors, I mean, IT and software? Why is that so?

Well I did a little bit of research to prepare for this interview and if you look at goods and services, there has been an increase from USD 26 billion in 2005 to USD 63 billion in 2013. That is good. So when you play on services you are adding on another 40 per cent, but most of it is in goods.

But real investments in terms of infrastructures or larger projects coming in from the US are limited to the extent of portfolios investments that are happening in India from the hedge funds or other classes of portfolio investors.

Well, that is actually not true. There are a number of design construction and engineering opportunities that are coming up. There are a lot of firms that are interested in the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor. Lot of things had been pending because of the elections. Now that they are through, you are going to see a lot of activity.

But is there some apprehension among US businesses about procedural delays that happen in India in these kind of projects?

 That’s why you need a good partner like us.

 A new government is in power, how do you see the US Government and business collaborating with it?

We are looking forward to building our partnership as President Obama said, “the US-India bilateral relationship is going to be most dynamic partnership of the 21st century”. So, we are very much looking forward to work with the new government and helping the partnership to grow and get mutual benefit.

Can you spell out any concerns you have in from the bilateral trade point of view?

I think if the Prime Minister moves forward with greater transparency and efficiency, investments will come and trade will continue to grow. American companies look for that kind of transparency and increased efficiency which means less bureaucracy, which of course sounds funny coming from a US government official.

Anything specific you have noticed over here, which you would like to recommend in terms of improvement for trade to grow?

I think we are doing this kind of interviews to let the business community know that we are here to facilitate business. Like I said, we have a network of seven offices with 13 private extensions. With a country that has 1.2 billion people that’s a drop in the bucket to an extent that we can get our messages out there.

Can you share with us some numbers on trade that you are looking out going forward in terms of three years or five years from now?

Five years from now or say by 2020 we trying to get to USD 500 billion

How much of this will be in Real Assets?

Its a goal and actually on tourism, education and travel side we just passed a hundred thousand in March last year. We would like to see USD 1 million by next year.

I get a lot of queries about education in the US, especially the post-graduation that students here want to do and they find it difficult, and are apprehensive about how to go about it? Are we trying to address that in some manner?

Our counter-section has actually been developing an educational outreach strategy. So they get the message out there, answer specific questions or concerns from the students or parents. We try to make it as easy and user-friendly for students to come in or the group of students to come in, to apply for US fees or to study in US.

Do you have anything in mind for entrepreneurs?

Well that is something The Indian government and our counterparts in the US have to focus on. You have an embassy and consulates in US that would promote Indian business interest in US.