Potential high to increase bilateral trade between India and the U.S.

COIMBATORE, September 23, 2014

Bilateral trade between the U.S. and India has tremendous potential for increase, according to Ambassador Vinai Thummalapally, Executive Director of SelectUSA.

Mr. Thummalapally spoke to reporters here after a roundtable discussion hosted by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce.

The U.S. is getting ready for the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi later this week. It is viewed in a positive light to raise the level of bilateral relations in all fields. “We are very bullish on bilateral trade,” he said. The bilateral trade is about 100 billion dollars and it has the potential for five-fold increase.

Total global investment that came into the U.S. in 2012 was 166 billion dollars and 197 billion dollars in 2013. From India, the cumulative investment that has come in was 11 billion dollars as of 2011.

SelectUSA is looking at working with all business here. It plans to organise a road show in the first half of 2015 when it will bring a delegation from economic development organisations to all important cities in India.

The response for the meet in Coimbatore is tremendous from all sectors – textiles, pumps, components, etc. Many of these units have operations in the U.S. and are expanding.

The units here should consider the U.S. for investment as it offers opportunities in manufacturing, has a robust economy and has a huge market.

Coimbatore is among the five cities Mr. Thummalapally is visiting since September 18. The concentration of entrepreneurs and the specific strength of small and medium-scale enterprises and manufacturing makes Coimbatore an attractive destination. “Coimbatore, to me, is a robust economy for the potential it has to offer,” he said.

SelectUSA helps investors find information they need to make decisions, find solutions to issues related to the federal Government and connect with the right people at the local level.

According to John M. McCaslin, Minister Counselor for Commercial Affairs, Embassy of the United States of America, in New Delhi, companies from Tamil Nadu and even in Coimbatore have set operations in the U.S. These are from sectors such as textiles, automobile components, compressors and pumps.

“We see great potential to work with more units, especially small land medium-scale units here,” he said. They can set plant in the U.S. to design, develop and make products in the U.S. Indian direct investment in the U.S. is relatively small now. But, it is growing very fast, he said.