Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath will visit Chicago for a meeting of the India United States Trade Policy Forum, to be organised on February 20-21.

US Trade Representative Susan Schwab will co-chair the event, where parties will deliberate upon key areas of agriculture; innovation and creativity, including the IPR-related issues; investment; services; and tariff and non-tariff barriers.

The meeting will also review the progress made since the last the meeting in April 2007 in New Delhi.

"In keeping with the decision taken by the two ministers at the last meeting to expand economic and commercial cooperation between their SME sectors, the first ever Indo-US SME Summit would be held in Chicago to coincide with the TPF meeting with the objective of enhancing cooperation between Indian and US SMEs, especially in the manufacturing sector," the Indian Embassy has said in a statement.

A 60-plus strong delegation of India companies is expected for the summit, which will be organised by FICCI in cooperation with the Indian Commerce Ministry, Chicago Council on Global Affairs and United States-India Business Council.

"Chicago and mid-western states of US, which together form the manufacturing hub of the US, can play a special role in exploiting the synergies (between the two countries)... The goal of the SME summit is to catalyse and facilitate such cooperation," the statement said.

Schwab and Nath would jointly inaugurate the summit.

Both Nath and Schwab will also be interacting with the Private Sector Advisory Group (PSAG), which they decided to set up at the last TPF meeting. The PSAG had first met in New York in September 2007.

Mr Naresh Roy

(Tradeindia Expert)

Roy Exports

MD, Roy Exports
New Delhi, India