U.S.-India Insight: A Stronger U.S.-India CEO Forum

A Stronger U.S.-India CEO Forum

By mid-century, the world will have 3 globally consequential economies. The United States and China are already there. India will join this exclusive group if current growth rates are maintained and accelerated. The United States and India must regain our bilateral commercial momentum—including by building, amending, or reconstituting helpful dialogues beyond the long-winding trade talks. One such group could be reconstituting the U.S.-India CEO Forum. Maximizing the impact of the CEO Forum will require much-needed changes to improve participation and more actionable recommendations on policy issues with a lean towards expanding commercial integration in strategic technologies.

The U.S.-India CEO Forum was originally created back in 2005 during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Washington, DC to meet with U.S. president George W. Bush- the same summit that launched civilian nuclear cooperation. Over the past 20 years, the Forum has evolved, changing its membership every few years, expanding its membership (up to 25 members on each side in 2023), and altering the government agencies that “convene” the Forum.

The Forum’s first compilation of recommendations was released in 2006 during President Bush’s visit to India, with targeted sections looking at infrastructure, energy, human resources, technology, trade, and intellectual property rights. Most of these recommendations focus on changes for the government of India to consider. After this report, the work of the Forum has remained private, in hopes that good ideas without public pressure may provide more space for action.

Since President Trump’s election last year, the two governments have not provided any formal guidance as to whether the Forum will be continued. The priority in bilateral commercial relations has been the drive to conclude a bilateral trade agreement; clearly, these talks have stalled in recent months. Paired with the Trump Administration’s aggressive tariff policies, commercial diplomacy is currently defined by a single, difficult line of engagement.

The Forum can still play an incredibly valuable role in shaping commercial relations. Having this type of high-level body playing a quasi-governmental role can sustain positive momentum even when the government-to-government track faces headwinds. There are some important ways the U.S.-India CEO Forum could be strengthened if the governments choose to reinstate the group. These include:

• Lead Time/ Regularity: To enhance the effectiveness of government-industry engagement, it is essential that government agencies provide adequate lead time when scheduling key meetings with business executives. The governments should plan an annual gathering and commit to dates at least 6 months in advance.
• Involve State Leaders: This has been a recommendation by the Forum in the past. In both nations, subnational governments play significant roles in making the business environments attractive. Proactive state leaders should be able to engage the Forum, take feedback, and pitch the incentives and reforms they have in place to win new investments.
• American Willingness to Change: The policy agenda of the Forum has largely focused on policy reforms for the Indian government to consider. While this is understandable, there are still meaningful asks by the India side which are largely ignored due to being “too difficult.” Examples include relaxations of rules around skilled immigration, lowering export controls, and offsetting credits for Indian workers in the U.S. who make Social Security contributions.
• Improve Support: The CEO Forum needs more of a backbone. Either the governments provide organizational and research support, or the members themselves commit to having a small staff to work across the diversity of sectors to drive concrete recommendations to the governments.
• Cost-Benefit Analysis of Recommendations: This issue is not unique to the Forum, but a higher degree of rigor must be applied to the recommendations so that policymakers can better-gauge the expected impact (tax revenue, trade flows, investment flows, job creation) of recommendations from the Forum.
• Prioritize Strategic Sectors: The Forum should focus its work on strategically important sectors such as those outlined in Made in China 2025. This will help align the Forum with other government-to-government workstreams and channel ideas into areas that already have policy churn.

India's rise is good for the global economy and should be good for American prosperity if we find ways to “grow together.” Our government leaders cannot unlock this partnership in a vacuum. Having corporate leaders at the table to help drive growth-oriented policies will underpin this collaboration. Government leaders should prioritize re-establishing the U.S.-India CEO Forum while focusing and strengthening its operations.