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 in Chicago on Tuesday 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 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 roadshows 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 per cent, while its imports from the country are increasing only at eight per cent.
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.
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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