AMCHAM-Logo-1

Events

Past Events

Interactive Session with Ambassador Robert Holleyman, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative 27th July 2016

On 27th July, AmCham hosted an interactive session over dinner with Ambassador Robert Holleyman, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, at the Oberoi Hotel in Bangalore. The USTR team also included Dawn M. Shackleford, Deputy Assistant USTR, and Conor Harrington, IPR Director, USTR, Ken W Mcbride, Political/Economic Officer from the American Consulate in Chennai and representatives from the U.S. Commercial Services.

Ambassador Holleyman emphasized USTR’s outlook to break down trade barriers and negotiate principles towards creating a stronger, unified trade relationship between the U.S. and India. He also mentioned the upcoming 10th U.S. – India Annual Trade Policy Forum (TPF) will take place in New Delhi in October. He mentioned the new IT policy has been encouraging even though the pace of reform may be slower than desired. Some of the areas focused on for this visit included the digital economy, manufacturing, agriculture, IT and issues around the digital economy to understand where there are points of friction and try to minimize it. They also mentioned patents, trade secrets, local sourcing requirements and trade facilitation.

Ambassador Holleyman mentioned the “Digital 2 Dozen,” a list of principles embodied in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). The TPP includes cutting-edge obligations designed to promote the digital economy through a free and open internet and commerce without borders. Some of the challenges and opportunities highlighted by participants from the ICT sector were enumerated. The participating companies were HPE, Oracle, Texas Instruments and Saggezza.