The United States sees great potential in doubling bilateral trade with India by 2008 and Washington and New Delhi are in touch with each other for the successful conclusion of the Doha Round of World Trade Organisation negotiations, American Trade Representative Rob Portman said in Beijing on Monday.
"(Commerce and Industries) Minister Kamal Nath and I work very closely on WTO matters and we are part of a group of four countries -- the United States, India, Brazil and the European Union, trying to work through these issues," he told reporters in Beijing after meeting Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai.
Noting that US-India total trade was around $30 billion, he said, "it should be far in excess of that."
"As you know, we made a commitment to try and double it within three years on the trade of goods. We have our hands full on how to do that. But it shouldn't be too hard."
"India has so much potential to become a more active player in the international trading system," Portman added.
Asked to comment on his meeting with Indian leaders in New Delhi last week, he said, "We had some great meetings in India. I just got a call from Minister Nath. I am going to return that call when I leave this press conference."
Portman, who expressed serious concern over the current stalemate in WTO talks, said trade ministers may have another round of meeting in Geneva next week in the run up to the Hong Kong WTO Ministerial scheduled from December 13-18.
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