Guest blog post by Francisco J. Sánchez, Under Secretary for International Trade, International Trade Administration

There are amazing opportunities available to U.S. businesses in India.

That’s one of the main takeaways of my successful week-long trade mission focusing on Indian port infrastructure. Case in point: the two-way trade between India and the U.S. grew to $58 billion in 2011, and this upward trend is expected to continue in 2012.

The ports trade mission that we just concluded today–a first of its kind in India–was especially successful. Representatives from 12 U.S. organizations joined me on the trip, where we visited three different cities to facilitate as many partnerships as possible. The trade mission participants included dredging companies, port security companies, scanning technology providers, infrastructure, and transportation and logistics companies. With them the Ports of Baltimore and San Diego also joined to partner with companies and ports in India.