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Hectic lobbying on to save Indo-US trade from the shadow of sanctions

Sanctions or no, it is business as usual for the Indo-US Joint Business Council.

The JBC is expected to meet the US under-secretary of state on Friday to discuss the economic sanctions imposed on India. The council would push for lifting the sanctions. As part of the hectic lobbying to get the impositions lifted, the Council is organising a meeting shortly.

Further, the JBC will meet in Washington in June to thrash out the issues hampering the growth of trade between the two nations.

The meet, to be held in the first week of June, would provide Indian industry and the government representatives an excellent platform to forge closer business relations.

The overwhelming presence of multinational companies based in the United States, Europe and Japan in India will also help resolve this issue at the appropriate time.

It would also provide a forum to the Indian government and industry to put its point of view before the multinational companies, which wield tremendous clout in the US.

Meanwhile, Indian corporate lobbying against the sanctions is being headed by the Confederation of Indian Industry, the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The CII has already written to its partners in the US, asking them to take up the issue with the Clinton administration. The CII's partners include the National Association of Manufacturers, the Asia Society and the Apen Institute.

Further, it has urged its 140 partner countries, especially the G-8 members, to let their respective governments know that nothing has changed in India, it was business here as usual.

For its part, FICCI, together with ASSOCHAM, has called for an internal meeting with the secretaries of various joint business councils. The Federation has four JBCs -- with America, Asia and the Pacific, Europe/Russia, and other CIS countries.

Sources said though the initial response of the American companies to India's plea have been lukewarm, the prohibition on the Exim Bank from forwarding credit to the Indian infrastructure sector has put some fire into them, as many stood to lose.

UNI