The Hindu : Open up high-tech market, U.S. tells India

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 18, 2003

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Open up high-tech market, U.S. tells India

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI Nov. 17. Export controls imposed by the United States on products incorporating dual-use technologies have eased considerably in the past two years and they do not pose a hurdle to the expansion of bilateral trade in high-tech goods with India, a senior official of the U.S. Department of Commerce, said here today.

Now on a visit to attend meetings of the Indo-U.S. group on cooperation in high-technology to be held in Bangalore and New Delhi in the next few days, the Under-Secretary in the Bureau of Industry and Security of the Department of Commerce, Kenneth I. Juster, said that India should fulfil its responsibility of bringing down barriers to market access faced by high-tech U.S. goods, as agreed to in the group.

Addressing a meeting organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry-Southern Region (CII-SR), Mr. Juster said India could not say that free trade and globalisation meant more job opportunities at home and in the U.S. for Indian high-tech personnel serving the U.S. market and denial of market access to American high-tech products in India. "It has to be a two-way street." He cited the example of India allowing duty-free import of the U.S. computer hardware when it was used for augmenting exports by Indian importers and levying high tariffs on U.S. computers imported for use by consumers in India.

Only a substantial expansion of the bilateral economic relationship, including a ``critical mass" in high-tech trade and knowledge-based trade would enable India to take advantage of the ``enormous opportunities" offered by the relationship and develop a "strategic partnership" with the U.S. It was in the post-1991 phase in India with minimal government intervention that Indian information technology (IT) industry "came of age". For India to realise its full potential to become a global economic power, removal of procedural hurdles and required protection to intellectual property, especially in high-tech areas such as biotech technology and life sciences, were necessary.

Mr Juster said it was a widespread misconception that the U.S. had imposed a ban on export of high-tech dual technologies and products. The U.S. had only enforced a licensing regime for such products, which was applied to all countries with which it did business, including its "closest ally", the U.K. In the U.S. fiscal 2002 (October 1, 2001 to September 30, 2002), which was preceded by the lifting of the U.S. sanctions against India, the U.S. exports to India covered by the licensing regime was only one per cent of total US exports to this country, and denials accounted for just 0.05 per cent. A total of 280 licence applications covering planned exports of $530 million were "returned" since licences were no more needed for them.

In the U.S. fiscal 2003, licensed trade with India was less than one per cent and denials less than one-third of one per cent.

He felt that some aggressive action by India was needed to fulfil another principle adopted by the joint group on high technology, viz., action to stop the proliferation of dual use technologies. Though India was not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), it shared a common interest with the U.S. in ensuring that technologies related to weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), including nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, did not proliferate, he added.

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