Remove 'impediments' in trade ties: Kerry

US vice-prez Joe Biden to visit India next month

If some “impediments” in trade between India and the US were removed, the two-way trade could surpass $100 billion, said US Secretary of State John Kerry.

“There are always mutual concerns that we have. Trade between India and the US has grown five-fold just in the years of the Obama Administration. Investments between our countries have grown by a factor of 10. Last year, we almost topped $100 billion in two-way trade in goods and service and we are on track to do even better in 2013. We can do even more, we can break down trade and investment barriers. We had productive discussion we had on these issues,” said Kerry at a press conference with External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid here on Monday after concluding the fourth India-US Strategic Dialogue.

Kerry, who is visiting India for the first time in his present capacity, arrived here on Sunday with a high-powered ministerial delegation including US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. The Strategic Dialogue, started in 2009, is a forum for discussing the full range of India-US cooperation on bilateral and regional issues.

Emphasising on the outcome of the dialogue, Kerry said he and Khurshid are “eager and committed to take the relationship to new heights”. He added US vice-president Joe Biden would visit India in July to get the strategic dialogue going and show the US' seriousness on India.

Applauding the commercial agreement reached by US’ Westinghouse Electric and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) to install the first 1,000-Mw US nuclear reactor in India under the historic 2008 India-US civil nuclear deal, Kerry said the agreement “should be arrived at by September of this year”.

Both sides are going to have a joint CEOs’ forum in Washington on July 12 for which Kerry invited Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma. He also asked Khurshid to visit the US to further the work on the joint dialogue.

On the bilateral investment treaty (BIT) negotiations that started in 2008, Kerry said: "India is currently reviewing the text of its bilateral investment treaty model and we agreed today to try move forward on that model as soon as possible."

The last round of talks was held in June 2012. The BIT is expected to deepen the bilateral economic relationship and support economic growth and job creation in both countries.

Both sides also discussed the issue of US bringing out a new immigration law, which might adversely impact Indian IT companies operating there. Khurshid said the matter was discussed and India has communicated to the US that this concerns temporary work permits and not immigration. The issue is expected to be discussed at length during the US-India CEOs forum.

On Afghanistan, Kerry said conditions for peace talks with the Taliban had not been met yet. The US and Taliban leaders had been contemplating talks to end the war in Afghanistan with the NATO troops pulling out from the region 2014 onwards.

Regarding India's ties with Iran, Kerry said that the matter was also discussed during his meeting with Khurshid. "We are appreciative that India has worked hard to reduce its dependency on Iranian oil and that has been an important step."

He also urged India to communicate this to the new leadership in Iran to “not to miscalculate about American and international commitment … We would urge Iran to prove that their nuclear proliferation is indeed for peaceful activities.”

On the recent reports over American intelligence agencies snooping on internet servers and reading through private data, Kerry said the issue is “highly misunderstood” and that the programme has saved several lives by preventing terrorist attacks. He, however, denied violating privacy laws.

The US recently agreed to continue the waiver on its Iran sanctions for India, China and seven other countries, on the condition these nations agree to reduce oil imports from the Iran. Kerry, who will leave for Jeddah on June 25, also met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss bilateral relations.
KERRYSPEAK

• India has worked hard to reduce its dependency on Iranian oil
• Conditions for peace talks with the Taliban have not met been yet
• US’ surveillance programme has been “highly misunderstood”; it has saved several lives by preventing terrorist attacks
• US will continue the waiver on its Iran sanctions for India, China and seven other countries