US today said bilateral trade with India has reached USD 109 billion and it will get a further boost from new reforms including GST. US Commerce Secretary Ms. Penny Pritzker, who will be on a 3-day India visit from tomorrow, told PTI in an interview that travel and tourism and sub-national engagement have been identified as two new areas of focus to drive commercial cooperation between the two countries in 2017. 

She said that the two countries enjoy a thriving trade and investment relationship. US-India bilateral trade reached USD 109 billion in 2015, up from USD 37 billion in 2005. Ms Pritzker said, Indian companies are also investing in each other’s economies at record levels. In 2015, US investment in India reached more than USD 28 billion and Indian investment in the United States reached more than USD 11 billion. In fact, US affiliates of Indian-owned firms now employ more than 52,000 workers in the US.
 
She expressed confidence that India’s rapidly growing economy and the Modi government’s ambitious reform agenda, including Goods and Services Tax, passage of the recent national bankruptcy law, and liberalised foreign direct investment limits in key sectors, will further a deeper economic relationship in the years ahead.

She described increasing number of travelers who move between the US and India as a significant commercial opportunity. More than 1 million people travel between the two countries each year.