India, US to hold frequent discussions to increase trade

New Delhi, Aug 16 (PTI) India and the US, the two
countries which have been holding back a global trade pact on
differences over farm subsidies, would hold frequent
discussions to increase two-way commercial engagement.

Deputy US Trade Representative Demetrios Marnatis and
Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar held a meeting here to
discuss plan for re-engagement under the bilateral Trade
Policy Forum (TPF), the principal trade dialogue between the
US and India.

TPF has five focus groups - agriculture, investment,
innovation and creativity (intellectual property rights),
services and tariff and non-tariff barriers.

"Marantis and Khullar concluded that the governments
(India and the US) would engage in frequent consultations with
the aim of achieving concrete results on our bilateral
agenda," US Trade Representative said in a statement.

New Delhi and Washington are also negotiating a bilateral
investment treaty that would provide national treatment to
private investments in each other's country.

The two officials agreed that there is much room for the
two governments to collaborate for promoting greater two-way
trade and investment, it said.

The visiting US official said the treaty would provide
'robust protection' to the Indian and US investors in each
other's markets.

In 2007, India had invested USD 3 billion in the US,
while it had received foreign direct investment worth USD 13.6
billion from that country. Bilateral trade between the
countries was USD 41.75 billion in 2007-08.

The Doha Round of talks for a global trade deal collapsed
last year in Geneva when India and the US locked horns on
issues mainly providing level of protection to the farmers of
developing countries. PTI NKD
DDC