Assocham Tuesday welcomed the India-US joint statement following the meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with President Donald Trump, stating the mutual commitment to increasing market access in Information Technology and other sectors is a big positive for the USD 150 billion Indian software and services industry.
 
Among other positives, the Assocham took special note of the text in the joint statement which stated that "the United States and India plan to undertake a comprehensive review of trade relations with the goal of expediting regulatory processes; ensuring that technology and innovation are appropriately fostered, valued, and protected; and increasing market access in areas such as agriculture, information technology, and manufactured goods and services...."

D S Rawat said, before beginning of his important US visit,   the Assocham had urged the Prime Minister to take up the issue of obstacles being faced by the Indian IT industry. “It is a matter of satisfaction that the commitment of market access in IT has been given by the President Trump himself".

Rawat said yet another positive from the outcome of the Modi-Trump meeting is committed to strengthening cooperation to address excess capacity in industrial sectors. Building on the US commitment on free and fair trade, India can look forward to increasing its merchandise exports to the US which is on the way to a smart recovery. As far as India is concerned, "we have opened a whole lot of sectors and taken a number of steps to improve ease of doing business".

The mutual commitment to expedite regulatory issues would also be of great help to the Indian pharmaceutical industry which has been facing several problems at the end of the US -FDA.