INTERNATIONAL AND SPECIALIZED TRANSPORT
■
NOVEMBER 2013
SC&RA COMMENT
53
India’s rise from the ashes, so to speak, from countless
decades of poverty and disease to an emerging
international economy has garnered the world’s
second-most-populous country (approximately 1.2 billion)
some heavyweight connections – the USA being one of the more
prominent. In just twelve years, from 2000 to 2012, bilateral trade
between the two nations increased from US$ 14.4 billion to
$62.6 billion. According to the US - India Business Council
upwards of 100,000 jobs have been created in the USA in
connection with recent cumulative Indian investments that have
reached $11 billion. So, all’s well that ends well, right? Not so fast.
Outsiders might assume that such a burgeoning relationship
could only continue to flourish amid near-record growth.
Inquiring minds, however, would soon find that, despite the
numbers, a growing collection of USA-based trade groups are less
than thrilled with India’s increasingly restrictive trade policies.
Pressure has mounted, to the extent that US Vice President Joe
Biden felt it necessary to visit the South Asian nation in late
September and suggest that investment conditions could only
improve if certain barriers to US products were removed.
Trade barriers
Representatives at the National Association of Manufacturers
have begun to suggest that India hasn’t done itself any favours
in the last 18 months by contracting its economic policies in
favour of its own companies and industries, rather than opening
its economic arms to US and other imports. Some industry
insiders go so far as to say that India’s recent indifference towards
economic norms is unprecedented – as the nation goes about
imposing tariffs and revoking patents to apparently clear the way
for local companies in industries like clean energy, technology
and medical devices. Whereas India’s growth has continued along
a similar line of progression to another powerhouse US trade
partner, China, the similarities taper off considerably beyond the
COMMENT
Joel M Dandrea
initial communications sector.
Much of India’s economic improvement has found firm
footing in its notorious communications service industry. But the
nation has committed a key economic blunder in the last decade
by allowing its transportation and infrastructure development
to, essentially, die on the vine. The Indian government simply
hasn’t modernised its transportation and trade infrastructure
and, within the merciless clutch of a real-time example of pay
now or pay later, the nation is starting to realise its mis-steps,
unfortunately at the expense of its own once-promising
economic range.
A country bolstered by both a wealth of coastal areas and
English speaking workers, India seemingly failed to plan ahead
as it advanced over the course of the last ten years. Its ports exist
today in a years-late state of grave underdevelopment, and its
transportation infrastructure is still internationally criticised.
Consequently, the nation’s growth, admired by many around the
globe in the first five years of the 21st Century, is decelerating.
From an 11 % GDP growth rate in 2010, India hasn’t had cause
to celebrate. The GDP rate for 2011 was 7.7 %, followed up by
5 % in 2012 – the lowest rate the nation has seen in ten years.
In addition, the country’s buying power is weakening and its
industrial production is slowing.
US trade associations seem to have taken the lead in pressuring
the American government to address these economic obstacles
with India. While many of the US and international companies
already in operation in India are able to fully appreciate the
nation’s instincts to hunker down and protect its own industries
amid tough times, most agree that there is a better way to go
about re-stimulating internal stability, while preserving the
integrity (and potential) of international relationships. The first
step would be in assessing the many benefits in establishing and
maintaining the policies and procedures inherent within a
free-market economy.
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A win or a warning
WHO’S WHO
SPECIALIZED CARRIERS
& RIGGING ASSOCIATION
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT
Joel Dandrea
5870 Trinity Parkway, Suite 200
Centreville, Virginia, 20120, USA
Tel: +1 (703) 698 0291
Fax: +1 (703) 698 0297
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Michael Battaini
Sheedy Drayage
San Francisco, CA, USA
PRESIDENT
Ron Montgomery
Intermountain Rigging & Heavy Haul
Salt Lake City, UT
VICE PRESIDENT
Alan Barnhart
Barnhart Crane and Rigging
Memphis, TN
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Delynn Burkhalter
Burkhalter
Columbus, MS
ASSISTANT TREASURER
Bruce Forster
Rigging Gear Sales
Dixon, IL
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CHAIRMAN
David Wittwer
, Hays Companies
Salt Lake City, UT
CRANE & RIGGING GROUP
CHAIRMAN
David Cowley
, TNT Crane & Rigging
Longview, TX
LADIES GROUP CHAIRWOMAN
Cathy Moore
, NBIS
Atlanta, GA
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CHAIRMAN
Geary Buchanan
Buchanan Hauling & Rigging
Fort Wayne, IN
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OFFICERS
PRESIDENT:
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NBIS
Atlanta, GA
VICE PRESIDENT:
Stephanie Bragg
Bragg Companies
Long Beach, CA
TREASURER:
Jim Sever
PSC Crane & Rigging
Piqua, OH
