Posted on 11/06/2010 10:56:17 AM PDT by mylife
Obama does business, announces $10 bn trade deals with India
US President Barack Obama is announcing $10 billion in trade deals with India that are expected to help pay for 54,000 US jobs.
He's also unveiling new export rules to make it easier for US 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.
Obama was to make the announcements Saturday in a speech to US and Indian business executives on the first day of his 10-day, four-country Asia trip.
In the wake of Democrats' midterm election losses, attributed partly to continued high unemployment in the US, the White House is working overtime to present Obama's trip as singularly focused on US 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 Obama's visit to India helped finalize them. Officials said the deals would support 53,670 US jobs, but it was not clear how many, if any, new jobs would be created as a result.
The announcements were coming shortly after 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 is aware of sometimes being perceived as antibusiness in corporate America, and said after the elections last week that he wanted to change that perception. Much of Obama's day Saturday appeared geared toward that goal.
Before his speech to the US-India Business Council, Obama met with CEOs. Reporters looked on as he again tied his mission to US 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 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.
Obama was spending three days in India, his longest stretch yet in one country, a point US officials have been careful to emphasize as they play up the administration's interest in nurturing the relationship.
On Sunday he heads to New Delhi, the capital, where he will address the parliament.
After India, Obama is scheduled to travel to Indonesia, where he lived for four years as a youth.
From there he goes to South Korea for a meeting of the Group of 20 developed and developing nations and then to Japan for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, before returning to Washington on Nov 14, a day before the start of Congress' lame-duck session.
GWB relaxed the transfer of military technology with India about 5 years ago. Now Obama is taking credit.
For the most part, the deals were already pending, but the White House contends Obama's visit to India helped finalize them. Officials said the deals would support 53,670 US jobs, but it was not clear how many, if any, new jobs would be created as a result.
While I am enthusiastic about these developments, trade needs to be well thought out, India has many Interests and not all are to our advantage.
Still, It makes more sense to me than trade with China.
bunch of fake crap
The 3BN Dollars of this trip included with the 10BN? It would seem he gave them a downpayment. No?
The 10 billion covers our federal overspending for two and a half days.
Those deals were done before the trip.
The trip is just PR
“For the most part, the deals were already pending,”
So, in effect, he’s taking 3000 people and spending bazillions of dollars to shake hands on a deal that was already made?
Lemme guess, we’re going to help India build phone banks to house collection agencies for all those that have lost their jobs here.
Obama is a fake, fraud and liar. Why didn’t he do this from the start?
Why not sign the other trade deals that are still pending out there with our other allies?
Plus, the devil is in the details.
I don’t believe this is a real change.
Guess this is to make up for the 1000’s of IT jobs we outsourced to India since 2006.
$10BN. I wonder how much those 34 warships are worth.
Interesting statement. Is that kind of like "Debbie does Dallas?"
Can someone give this dumbass a calculator?
10 billion / 54000 =~ 185,000 per job
Did we think this guy would move 34 Naval ships, use over forty aircraft, book up entire hotels, spend literally billions on this, and not come back with a couple of bags of potato-chips to show off?
Yep, only the Barney Fife president could reason that spending over a billion on a vacation to please over a thousand of his followers, could be justified by business we were already going to do with India.
Once again, we are confronted by a nine year old’s reasoning.
And once again we have the seven year olds in the press looking up to him in adoration.
We can now expect this type of reporting from India and just after he comes back..., “Oooo...”, “Ahhhhhh...”, “Eeeeee...”, “Wheeeee...”, “Yipee...”, and from a very few, “Groan!”
You ever done any boondoggling cameraeye?
Besides, part of the great expense was that he needed to demonstrate to India how you can fly half of the empire to the other side of the world on C17 globemasters.
Never boondoggled eh?
To bad...
Heyup.
Well somebody is gettin @#$*ed
King Barack XIV of the Do-Nothing Dynasty
“Le golf course, c’est moi”
Anyone care to bet this involves waiving or watering-down ITAR restrictions on exports to India?
And the loss of technology IP and trade secrets isn’t the whole story. Loosening up of export controls may mean companies are no longer required to build those products exclusively in US factories by US citizens. If so, just stand by as another wave of outsourcing happens, ITAR is the only thing keeping many jobs in the US as it is.
Meanwhile BHO will take credit for yet another failure that won’t improve the economy anyhow.
Actually the Indian press is pretty critical.
Keep an eye on the hindustan times.
This is peanuts on the international stage.
How embarrassing!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.