Washington, D.C.. – Today, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency launched the second phase of its U.S.-India Standards and Conformance Cooperation Program (SCCP).  The Program will convene six workshops in India for U.S. and Indian industry and government representatives to discuss standards and conformity assessment practices in three core sectors of U.S.-India trade: clean energy, smart and sustainable cities, and water and sanitation.

USTDA signed a grant supporting the second phase of the SCCP in September, and today the contract signing for the workshop occurred between USTDA’s partners in the SCCP: the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), a nonprofit business association in India, and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), the administrator and coordinator of the United States private sector voluntary standardization system. Together, CII and ANSI will carry out the second phase of SCCP, building off the progress made in Phase I.

“We are proud to support this next phase of SCCP which will bring together technical experts, policy makers, and companies to discuss shared challenges and find solutions,” said USTDA’s Acting Director Thomas R. Hardy.

“CII is delighted to work with ANSI in launching this new phase of U.S.-India cooperation in the realm of Standards in new sectors like renewable energy, smart cities, and water and sanitation which will greatly help boost two-way trade,” said Mr. Rakesh Bharti Mittal, President Designate, CII.  “We are thankful to USTDA and Government of India for their support in this regard.”

The contract signing between CII and ANSI occurred during the U.S.-India Commercial Dialogue hosted by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The signing was witnessed by U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, and India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu.

The event involved an interactive discussion with U.S. and Indian industry on bilateral standards cooperation in the three key sectors.

U.S. companies interested in participating in the workshops should reach out to ANSI at intl@ansi.org.

# # #