Obama Announces $10B in Trade Deals With India

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edited November 2010 in A Moving Train
Obama Announces $10B in Trade Deals With India


(CBS/AP) last Updated 8:48 a.m. ET

President Barack Obama has announced $10 billion in trade deals with India that are expected to help pay for 54,000 U.S. jobs.

He's also unveiling new export rules to make it easier for U.S. companies to do business with the nation of 1.2 billion people. Some of the changes, including relaxing controls on India's purchase of "dual use" technologies that could be used for civilian or military purposes, have been top priorities for the business community.

Speaking Saturday to American and Indian chief executives on the first day of a 10-day trip through Asia, Mr. Obama said the relationship between the U.S. and India "will be one of the defining and indispensable partnerships of the 21st century."

In the wake of Democrats' midterm election losses, attributed partly to continued high unemployment in the U.S., the White House is working overtime to present the president's trip as singularly focused on U.S. jobs and the domestic economy.

The commercial deals include the purchase of 33 737s from Boeing by India's SpiceJet Airlines; the Indian military's plans to buy aircraft engines from General Electric; and preliminary agreement between Boeing and the Indian Air Force on the purchase of 10 C17s.

For the most part, the deals were already pending, but the White House contends President Obama's visit to India helped finalize them.

Officials said the deals would support 53,670 U.S. jobs, but it was not clear how many, if any, new jobs would be created as a result.

The announcements came shortly after Mr. Obama arrived in Mumbai, where his first stop was at the Taj Mahal hotel to commemorate the 2008 terror attacks that killed 166 people across the city. The president said he intended to send a signal by making Mumbai the first stop of the trip and by staying at the Taj, which was a target during the terror siege.

"The United States and India stand united," he said. "We'll never forget."

But illustrating the difficulties of the U.S.-India relationship even as Mr. Obama began a trip aimed at strengthening it, Indian commentators quickly seized on the president's failure in his spoken remarks to mention Pakistan. Pakistan was the home of the 10 assailants, the place where they trained and the base they used to launch the attack.

Pakistan is also India's archrival - but a linchpin for Washington and its allies in the war in Afghanistan.

After his remarks on the terror attacks, Mr. Obama visited a museum in a home where Mohandas Gandhi once lived.

The president is aware of sometimes being perceived as anti-business in corporate America, and said after the elections last week that he wanted to change that perception. Much of Mr. Obama's day Saturday appeared geared toward that goal.

Before his speech to the U.S.-India Business Council, President Obama met with CEOs. Reporters looked on as he again tied his mission to U.S. job creation and proclaimed the importance of working with fast-growing economies. "No country represents that promise of a strong, vibrant, commercial relationship more than India," the president said.

The White House also arranged for four American chief executives who are in India for the occasion to brief reporters traveling with the president. They talked up the importance of India as a trading partner and praised President Obama's decision to come to the country to underscore that point in person.

"India represents the 14th-largest trading partner of the United States. Why? With all of the opportunity, it should be so much bigger. And that's what this opportunity is all about," said Terry McGraw, chairman and chief executive of the McGraw-Hill Companies.


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