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India-US investment protection pact likely by year end
Thursday, February 21, 2008
With Indian firms investing aggressively in the US, India
has put on fast track negotiations on signing an investment
protection agreement with the states.
While both the US and India have signed the investment
protection agreements with a number of countries, the one
between them has to be unique because it is a different type
of relationship, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath
said here last evening.
The two countries would try and conclude the investment
protection agreement by the end of this year, he said, adding
that Indian investments were not made in the American stock
market but in the backyard of the US economy.
India and the US are also stepping up trade volume,
particularly in the wake of the impending slowdown in the US.
Nath was speaking at the reception hosted by the Federation of
Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the
US-India business council at the launch of a major initiative
to sensitise American opinion-makers about the growing
engagement of Indian firms in the US.
Under the programme, `Investing in America: The Indian Story`,
the two industry bodies will roll out road shows to change
India`s image from being only the recipient of the foreign
direct investment to an important source of FDI.
The Indian industry, which has been at the receiving end of
the `job-shipping` campaign of the US presidential candidates,
has launched the counter-campaign.
Nath told US trade representative Susan Schwab that while the
US kept raking up the issue of market access in the Doha Round
of negotiations of the WTO, India had already started opening
its market on its own. US exports to India have been growing
at over 30 percent, while its imports from the country are
increasing only at eight percent.
Earlier in the day, Nath appreciated the bush administration
for showing far-sightedness on India-US cooperation in the
area of civil nuclear energy.
While India went in for a nuclear explosion and did not become
part of the non-proliferation treaty, Nath asked who has
signed it?
India had a credible record in using the nuclear energy for
peaceful purposes, he said, adding that the agreement between
India and the US is a testimony to this.
Both Nath and Schwab, who had bilateral meetings, said they
were working hard to achieve a breakthrough on the Doha round
of the WTO. "We have been working hard trying to capture that
elusive breakthrough that we were struggling for over the past
six years."
India and the US have remained at a loggerhead over the
contentious issues of cutting farm subsidies and market access
for industrial goods along with their partners in respective
groupings.
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