The U.S.-India Strategic and Partnership Forum‘s president Mukesh Aghi said that 200 American companies are seeking to move their manufacturing base from China to India once the general elections that are currently going on in India are over. The companies find that there is an excellent opportunity to set up an alternative to China by investing in India.
“We will advise [the new government] to bring more transparency in the process and to make it more consultative because in the last 12 to 18 months, we are seeing U.S. companies look at some of the decisions being made, either e-commerce or data localization, as more domestic-oriented than global,” Aghi noted.
He said that Mark Linscott, former assistant U.S. Trade Representative for South and Central Asian Affairs, is working with the Forum’s member companies to come up with recommendations on how India can enhance its exports. “One recommendation, which I strongly believe is going to help India is that we should now start thinking of a Free Trade Agreement between India and the U.S.,” Aghi added.
Aghi said that the Forum had formed a high-level manufacturing council within the member companies under the leadership of John Kern, senior vice president of Supply Chain Operations at Cisco, who is putting a document together detailing what India needs to do to turn it into a manufacturing hub.
