US for greater trade ties with India

Despite the US being the largest single market for Indian goods, the potential for more trade and investment is not being utilised, a top US official has said.

Washington wants to deepen involvement of the private sector in India and US "so that everyone has a much greater stake in US-Indian relations and will prevent strains that may occur from time to time from becoming political hot potatoes in the relationship," US Undersecretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Kenneth Juster said at a conference at the George Washington University.

Despite the fact that the US is currently the largest single market for Indian goods, "the potential exists for much more trade and investment and it is just not occurring."

Juster attributed the unfulfilled trade and investment potential to the "perception" among US businessmen that the Indian market is hamstrung by bureaucratic pitfalls and the real need for India to accelerate the pace of lowering tariffs and simplifying customs procedures.

He said that he wants to see India create more incentives for the private sector to improve the country's economic infrastructure.

He said the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership agreed to by President George W Bush and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in January 2004 "marks a framework for a takeoff" in bilateral ties through cooperation in civilian nuclear, space and high-tech trade, he said.