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Speeches and Remarks 2007
Press Conference Remarks by The Honorable Carlos Gutierrez, U.S. Secretary of Commerce, New Delhi, February 14, 2007
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Audio)
Secretary Gutierrez: Thank you and good afternoon, and thank you for being here and for your interest.
I'll be concluding this afternoon a two-day visit to New Delhi. Very intense, very productive. We've had a series of very good meetings.
The first goal that I had coming in is to convey and communicate President Bush's commitment to the relationship. I was able to do that and I can tell you that there is a commitment on both sides to strengthen what is clearly a very important relationship for the 21st Century. Not just for India and the United States, but for the world.
Our commercial side of the relationship is strong. We just received numbers last night on our 2006 trade numbers. Just to give you an idea of the size of the relationship, India and the U.S. have done two-way commerce totaling about $32 billion. That's a very sizeable relationship, very significant. The important thing is we believe we are just getting started and that could be a lot bigger than it is today.
In fat when President Bush and President Singh were together they set out a goal for us to double our commerce by the year 2010. We believe that that is achievable, and that's something that we are working very hard to accomplish.
I met with the Prime Minister today and had the opportunity to convey President Bush's regards and very importantly, President Bush's commitment to this very important relationship and this very important partnership and this very important friendship.
I'll be leaving today convinced that India and the U.S. have a great future together, and very impressed with the rate of growth of this economy and knowing that working together we can contribute to the continued growth of the Indian economy and continued job creation in both India and the United States. I'm very very pleased and honored to be able to contribute to this very significant and very strategic partnership.
So thank you for being here, and I'll open up for any questions you may have.
Press: Kartik Goyal from Bloomberg News.
The U.S. is willing to make difficult choices. You said that with reference to the WTO. My question is what does the U.S. want India to do for the success of the WTO negotiations?
Secretary Gutierrez: As you know, we laid out a very bold proposal about a year ago to the whole world. What we have told our partners and our government officials with whom we've met, the Indian government officials, is that what we need is for India to lead the developing world countries. India is a leader, and India is perceived as a leader, and India is followed as the leader. India's leadership is required in order to achieve a successful conclusion of the talks.
At this point what would be extremely helpful would be for India to rally that group of developing nations by proposing specific actions and giving a direction as to what India is willing to do and how far India is willing to move. That's very important because, again, India is a leader in that group. India's followed as a leader. Whatever India does will be a significant message to the developing world.
Press: Mukesh Jagota from the Press Trust of India.
As a follow-up to that question, we have been reading reports that the U.S. might be willing to cap its subsidies at $17 billion and maybe, there is talk of some kind of agreement between say U.S. and EU where the U.S. will agree to cap its subsidies at $17 billion and EU might take deeper cuts in foreign tariffs. Is there an agreement in the offing? Do you think this deal would in any way help the process of the WTO?
Secretary Gutierrez: We haven't made and I don't believe that Ambassador Schwab has made an announcement on specific negotiating details.
President Bush back in 2006 made a speech at the United Nations in New York where he said that the U.S. will be willing to take the lead on subsidy reductions and would be willing to make difficult choices in the area of subsidies, but in order to do that we'd like to see reciprocity from other countries and other regions of the world.
In the absence of that, as you can imagine we would be negotiating with ourselves. So at the point where we see a counter-proposal coming forward that is meaningful, then we will respond accordingly. But at this point we have put a very significant proposal on the table and we would like to see a response to that proposal.
Press: Rituparna Bhuyan from Business Times.
Continuing with this topic of WTO, there are concerns on the extension of the TPA and again the proposed Farm Bill and the kind of effects it might have on the negotiations. What is your take on that?
Secretary Gutierrez: The Farm Bill is not linked to our WTO discussions. The Farm Bill is something that is done on a domestic level. It has to be done at this point in time given the calendar and how the process works. But the WTO discussion is very different than the Farm Bill and one is not driving the other. That's to answer that side of the question.
On Trade Promotion Authority, our President should have an extension to Trade Promotion Authority. We believe it's very important. We have demonstrated the value of Trade Promotion Authority through results. We just reported yesterday that our exports to the world grew by 13 percent in 2006. Those types of exports would not have happened if we weren't engaging the world, opening up new markets, negotiating Free Trade Agreements, and we would like to continue doing that so we can keep our growth moving ahead. So TPA is very very important for us.
Press: Mukesh Jagota from Press Trust of India.
Yesterday you raised some concerns about the pace of reforms and FDI limits in various sectors such as financial services. Now I'm coming to a specific question. That is that Wal-Mart is planning to enter India and there is a lot of political controversy that has erupted around Wal-Mart's entry into India. Would you like to comment on that?
Secretary Gutierrez: I'll just make a comment generally about reforms and about retail. You mentioned the financial sector. There is, as you say, a very intense debate happening which is a reflection of the fact that India is a very vibrant and energetic democracy, and a debate is taking place the way it takes place in our country, also a very vibrant and energetic democracy.
The way I understand the reforms is that the foreign investment will be prohibited in the retail aspect. Even though we call it retail reform, the actual retail, the face to consumers, that foreign investment will not be allowed for multi-brand outlets but that potentially there could be a partnership situation in the wholesale aspect of it.
If that occurs, we believe that it could represent a very efficient outlet for farm products and it could be a very important benefit to farmers and the agricultural sector because they will have an efficient pipeline in which to sell their products. Also the millions of stores that exist in the Indian market will have an efficient means of supply which should reduce the cost of the supply chain.
That's the way I understand the reform, but at the end of the day it is the decision of the government of India and that decision I'm sure is based on all the debate that is going on and the fact that the government represents the will of the people as a democracy should work, and we'll see what government officials ultimately decide.
Press: Rituparna from Business Standard.
Could you elaborate on the trade figures released yesterday? You said that bilateral trade between India U.S. is $32 billion. So do you have the breakup of what kind of imports you had and what kind of exports that you had to India? And the growth that has taken place.
Secretary Gutierrez: The number we had yesterday was $29 billion because last night we received the year-end 2006 number. So the $29 billion, after having added the additional time period became $32. So $32 billion is the final number. I don't have the split between India and the U.S.. I can tell you that when it was the $29 billion, India had about $20 billion of exports to the U.S. and the U.S. had $9 billion of exports to India. So there is a trade deficit for the U.S., a trade surplus for India.
The specific products, I don't have that today although there are some automotive products, there are some machinery products, but I don't have the actual breakdown. We can perhaps get it for you to respond to that.
Press: [Inaudible]?
Secretary Gutierrez: We were just talking about that growth in percentage --
Under Secretary Lavin: Sir, on the previous question. India's exports were about $22 and ours were about $10. And on the growth rate, on our exports it was 26 percent; on India's side it was 16 percent.
Secretary Gutierrez: So the total relationship is somewhere near 20.
Press: United News of India
What's your take on the non-tariff barriers that exist between the two countries? For example, there was a recent controversy on some duties being levied on the shrimp exports from India.
Secretary Gutierrez: In a general sense, as we have always said, we believe that free and fair trade is good and we believe that economies that are open grow faster than economies that aren't. That continues to be our point of view regarding growth and vitality of an economy. Trade adds growth and it adds jobs, so we're big proponents of openness and free trade, and non-tariff barriers are something that gets in the way of free and fair trade. So we should continue to work with all nations in the world to continue to expand trade.
Trade today is 25 percent of the world's economy, if you can imagine that. Twenty-five percent of the world's economy is done by trading, countries trading with each other. That number will grow. Because that number will grow, that will add jobs, it will add prosperity, it will take people throughout the world out of poverty and it will contribute to the well being and the standard of living of people throughout the world.
Press: I'm Sandeep Dikshit with the Hindu, and here is an easier one for you. You spoke about doubling the trade between both countries. What is the potential road map for that? And do nuclear technology exports figure in that?
Secretary Gutierrez: The growth and the road map continues to be market access and ensuring that Indian companies have access to the U.S. market and that U.S. companies have access to the Indian market. And very importantly, as part of that we believe that it's important to put companies in touch with local companies, put U.S. companies in touch with Indian companies. To that purpose, I'm very proud to say that Under Secretary Lavin led the largest trade mission we've ever done in our history, was here to India about tow months ago. That was designed to get companies meeting potential partners in India and people talking to each other and hopefully doing business together.
In the future, in April actually, we'll be having, the Department of Commerce will be leading a trade mission for companies in the area of clean technology. That will also be an opportunity to put Indian companies in touch with U.S. companies so that we can do more business together. That's an important component, to ensure that we're putting people in touch with people and they will make things happen and they will make growth and partnerships happen. That's extremely important. But we're confident that we will grow this relationship and we will do that in order to benefit citizens in India, citizens in the U.S., and we will create jobs, and those jobs will create a better standard of living, and at the end of the day all of this is about improving the lives of our people.
Press: Kartik Goyal from Bloomberg News.
In your opinion, what are the chances of the success of negotiations at WTO?
Secretary Gutierrez: I remain hopeful because there is so much to be gained with a successful WTO round. So we have to continue pushing forward because there is so much at stake and there is so much to be gained.
There's one estimate that suggests that if we have a successful WTO round, that 500 million people around the world will be lifted out of poverty. So when you have that kind of potential and that kind of opportunity, we should push forward and remain optimistic that we should be able to achieve a deal. There's so much to be gained. We should be able to do that.
Press: Mukesh Jagota from Press Trust of India.
How did your talks on financial sector reforms go?
Secretary Gutierrez: We talked generally about the subject of reform and again, these are decisions that need to be made by the government of India. We support reform because our experience has been that reform adds to growth. But those debates and those discussions are taking place as you said before in a very lively way, in a very intense way, because there is a very vibrant and energetic democracy in India. In the end the government of India will make the decisions that the Prime Minister and his Cabinet believe are right for the country.
