Utah Governor Spencer J Cox  | Photo Credit: Image source: Utah State office of the Governor

Salt Lake City, Utah 

India is a major priority market for the State of Utah and a trade mission to India is being planned for next year, Utah Governor Spencer J Cox said here on Thursday. 

“India is a fascinating region of the world right now. It’s one of our top priorities. We are already planning a trade mission that I will be attending next year,” Cox told businessline while speaking to a group of international journalists in Salt Lake City, Utah.

He said he was earlier also trying to be a part of the recent delegation led by US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to New Delhi to seal the trade deal but could not do so. 

The Governor’s meeting with a select group of journalists was facilitated by the US State Department, as part of an international reporting tour titled ‘Bringing Foreign Investment to the United States.’

Key destination

State economic and investment promotion bodies such as World Trade Center Utah note that the State has emerged as a key destination for Asian FDI in recent years, particularly from Japan and South Korea. Switzerland, the UK, and Germany are the top European contributors. 

Governor Cox also spoke about the State’s close ties with the Indian community and said that there was a shared entrepreneurial culture with the State. 

In addition to a large student population in University of Utah, healthcare, life sciences, manufacturing, and software are some sectors where Indian small and medium-sized businesses can be counted. Tata Chemicals North America and nutraceutical company Sami-Sabinsa Group are among large Indian companies located in the Western US mountain State. 

Given the recent geopolitical tensions, Governor Cox believes that sub-national relationships [between countries and individual US States] become more significant than ever, and a State like Utah can provide international investors with the personalised attention and incentives that large States often cannot. 

“If you [an investor] comes to a State like Utah, you get incredibly personalised attention. You get to meet with the Governor, and you get help with every stage of your investment,” he said. The State Governors and economic development agencies often play a bigger role in investment decisions than national governments, he added. 

On the subject of tariffs, the Governor stressed that he believed in free trade but notes that the US has been taken advantage of, in the past, because of its open trading policies. “If it was up to me, we would get rid of trade barriers everywhere,” he said. 

He called for predictability and clarity around tariffs to spur business investments. “Capital is a coward. And if it’s unsure about where to invest, it’s not going to invest. If we really want people to invest, we just need to set the rules of the game and leave them,” he said. 

AI-related business

Discussing the State’s stance on artificial intelligence (AI) and related business investments, Governor Cox said he was “a pragmatist” and wanted a middle path between AI development and regulation.

Noting his support for building data centres, he added that this should not be happening everywhere. The State is encouraging companies to build data centres away from population centres, he said. 

He also highlighted other measures taken to not strain their natural resources pool. This includes passing a Bill whereby companies that want to build a large data centre also have to build their own power production. Given that Utah is a dry State, we also passed one of the first Bills in the nation requiring companies to report their water usage every year, he added.

(The writer was in Utah at the invitation of the US State Department for the International Reporting Tour: “Bringing Foreign Investment to the United States)

Published on June 26, 2026