WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. government
is ready to strengthen bilateral trade relations with India and make progress
for the World Trade Organization's Doha round agenda, U.S Trade Representative
Ron Kirk said Tuesday.
Kirk and Indian Commerce Minister Anand Sharma met
Tuesday in Washington to discuss a range of issues for the U.S.-India Trade
Policy Forum (TPF) meeting in India scheduled for Oct. 26.
"India is one of the largest and one of the most
important trade partner for the U.S.. In 2008, the total volume of goods and
service being traded between India and the U.S. totaled 41 billion dollars."
Kirk said. "I know that is an impressive number, we believe it can and should be
higher."
"By improved market access to India, we can create
new jobs here in America," Kirk added.
The TPF is the main policy tool for the bilateral
trade agenda, and the United States and India are working together to create
greater opportunities for trade and investment.
Since Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to
the United States in July 2005, during which a number of trade and economic
initiatives were announced, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR)
has engaged with India on trade and investment matters through a number of
venues.
An interagency collaboration, the USTR-led TPF is the
principal trade dialogue between the United States and India. It has five Focus
Groups: Agriculture, Investment, Innovation & Creativity (intellectual
property rights), Services, and Tariff & Non-Tariff Barriers.
Besides bilateral trade relationship, Kirk and Sharma
acknowledged the productive Doha Round discussions that took place last week in
Paris.
Kirk said the two sides have shared desire of
commitment to make progress of the Doha development agenda and will talk about
cooperation to put the WTO's Doha round talks on a more successful path to
conclusion.
Latest data show that India was the United States'
17th largest goods export market and the 18th largest supplier of goods imports
in 2008.
The U.S. goods trade deficit with India was 8 billion
dollars in 2008.
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