Washington : The United States-India High Tech Cooperation Group (HTCG), which met here on Nov. 18-19, discussed practical steps to reduce the barriers in bilateral high-technology while enhancing the security of such trade.

The U.S. and Indian sides also reviewed progress on a previous action plan for expanding high-technology trade, and developed new action items. These new action items include continuing high-level dialogue on data privacy issues, supporting an industry-sponsored forum on India’s data privacy regime, hosting export promotion events in India, exchanging information to expedite end-use visits, and organizing an export control outreach seminar in India in 2005.

The HTCG was co-chaired by Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce Kenneth Juster.

Issues that came up for consideration included improving documentation sharing, easier procedures, exchange of views on export licensing procedures and procurement procedures and how to involve industry in the high tech trade between India and the U.S.

Mainly, it was a session to familiarize the participants on how India and the U.S. conduct business and what are the latest developments in data privacy, one of the prime areas of concern to the U.S., said Saran.

He told a press conference on Nov. 19 that India is looking at greater private sector participation in the defense industry and mentioned how the Kelkar Committee is currently working on how government-industry partnership in defense area could be expanded. He said the U.S. will soon have a major workshop in India on export licensing with the objective of familiarizing Indian industry with the very complicated and rather extensive U.S. export licensing procedures.

Earlier, Juster said significant progress has been made on developing a work plan to expand high-technology trade between the U.S. and India.

“The meeting built on the progress that has been made in increasing U.S.-India high-technology trade since the HTCG was established two years ago. The HTCG has proven to be a very effective forum through which to reduce barriers to bilateral high-technology trade while safeguarding trade in sensitive items,” said Juster. “We look forward to further meetings of the HTCG in 2005.”

According to a Department of Commerce press release, since the establishment of the HTCG, high-technology trade between the U.S. and India, including licensed trade in dual-use items, has grown substantially. In Fiscal Year 2004, the Commerce Department received more than twice as many export license applications as in 2002, and the approval rate increased from 84 percent to 90 percent. The department approved 912 applications, and the overall value of licensed dual-use exports from the U.S. to India exceeded $90 million. This is more than triple the value of such exports just two years earlier. In addition, the department has posted a representative at the U.S. embassy in New Delhi to further facilitate U.S.-India high-technology trade.

The meeting on Nov. 19 included a break-out session on trade facilitation, which focused on specific, near-term steps the two governments could take to reduce the tariff and non-tariff barriers to bilateral trade. Another session on strategic trade focused on ways to enhance the security of bilateral high-technology trade.

The meeting followed a public-private forum held at the Commerce Department under the auspices of the HTCG on Nov. 18. The forum focused on defense trade, data privacy, and export licensing. During the forum, industry representatives developed recommendations for the two governments on defense technology and data privacy issues, which were reviewed during the government meetings on Nov. 19.

In addition, as a follow-up to the industry discussions, the U.S.-India Business Council will lead a delegation of U.S. defense firms to the ‘Aero India 2005 Conference’ on Feb. 7-9 in Bangalore and a delegation of U.S. life sciences firms to the ‘Biotech India 2005 Conference’ on Feb. 9-12 in New Delhi.