IACC President hopeful of India, US “very shortly” achieving target of bilateral trade of USD 500 bn

New Delhi [India], March 4 (ANI): Lauding the economic ties between India and the US, Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC) President Pankaj Bohra has said that the IACC is working on a target to achieve bilateral trade of USD 500 billion between the two nations. He expressed hope that India and US will “very shortly” achieve the target of bilateral trade of USD 500 billion.

In his address at first ever India-US Legal Services Summit on Indo-US Cooperation on Corporate and Legal Issues, Bohra recalled that the chamber was established when the bilateral trade between India and the US was USD 6 billion. Calling US India’s “largest trading partner”, he noted that the bilateral trade between India and US has reached over USD 200 billion.

He said, “This chamber came into being 55 years ago. The bilateral trade between India and US was merely USD 6 billion. But I’m happy to share today America has emerged as the largest trading partner of India, with over USD 200 billion of bilateral trade between India and US.”

“Our chamber is working on a target of achieving bilateral trade of USD 500 billion between India and US, which was appearing very difficult all these years, but in developments in the last two, three years, now we see and we are very hopeful that very shortly we will achieve this target of bilateral trade of USD 500 billion,” he added.

Highlighting economic ties between India and the US, he said, “Today, India-U.S. economic partnership is stronger than ever. Changing global scenario, shifting economic landscape, emerging technologies, and favorable regulatory changes by both the governments are offering tremendous opportunities to the business communities of India and US to grow their trade with each other.”

Pankaj Bohra said that India and US in all these years has been exporting and importing goods and services. He stated that two nations are now expanding areas of cooperation and holding talks on technology transfer.

He said, “All these years we were importing and exporting goods and services, but now we are expanding our areas of cooperation. We are talking about technology transfer. We are jointly working with programs of space applications. We are discussing civil use of nuclear technology.”

“And we are also working with many other subjects such as innovations, emerging technologies, cyber security, space security. As our bilateral economic partnership is growing, the complexities of the businesses are also increasing. And this is where legal services sector has a very prominent role to play,” he added.

Calling “well-structured legal services sector multiplier and enabler of growth and prosperity”, he said that they cannot imagine exponential growth of economic partnerhip between India and the US without legal services sector.

“A well-structured legal services sector is a multiplier and enabler of growth and prosperity. In the absence of legal services sector, we cannot imagine exponential growth of Indo-US economic partnership. I am glad under the leadership of Dr Basin [Lalit Bhasin], our National Committee on Legal Services has conceptualized this program, covering many relevant topics, such as dispute resolution, enforcement, climate change, international taxation, corporate laws, IPR, and data protection, privacy law, etc,” he said.

He noted that Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC) is an “apex bilateral chamber” promoting trade, commerce, and investments between India and the US. He stated that the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1968 and it now has 1600 business entities as its members.

Speaking about the role of IACC in India-US ties, Pankaj Bohra said, “We have 1600 business entities as our members and 14 offices all across the country. We also have 38 partner organizations in US who are very closely working with us for promoting bilateral trade and investments.

“Our basic function is policy advocacy. We engage with government of India, government of US and other provincial governments to put across viewpoints of our members and to make sure that their interests are protected. Besides this, we have been providing scores of services to our members. One of them is to organize this kind of summits, seminars, workshops, And in continuation of that effort, today, our National Committee on Legal Services has organized this program,” he added.

Earlier in January, US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) President Mukesh Aghi underscored that trade between the two nations has exceeded USD 200 billion. Aghi emphasized collaborative efforts in areas such as engines, quantum computing, artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, and space partnerships.

“The relationship between India and the US is very strong. From a trade perspective, we already crossed USD 200 billion in trade,” he said. “We are seeing a lot of effort happening, engines, on quantum computing, AI, cyber security, partnerships in space…,” he added.

Mukesh Aghi said, “We’re seeing a substantial amount of collaboration and cooperation taking place between the two countries.”

Discussing the India-United States Trade Policy Forum, Aghi noted a shift in its character and posture, moving away from contentious issues. He said that discussions are now focused on improving trade, removing impediments, and exploring possibilities for lowering tariffs, rather than getting bogged down by specific trade disputes.