NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The United States wants India to further liberalise its financial sector and improve its intellectual property rules to enable better trade and investment flows, the U.S. top trade official said on Monday.
Ron Kirk also said there was a chance of concluding the Doha world trade talks by the stated goal of the end of 2010, but that was subject to what countries now brought to the table.
The United States has said it cannot agree to a Doha deal, still stuck after eight years, until other countries open their services trade more.
On a visit to New Delhi, Kirk met India Trade Minister Anand Sharma and business leaders to discuss ways to boost trade ties in the backdrop of the global slowdown.
"We would also like to see more improvement and openness in the investment environment for U.S. businesses in India," Kirk said at a news conference.
"The outstanding issues which the United States has asked for more attention including improving its intellectual property rights regime."
Trade between the two countries had doubled in the last three years, Kirk said. He and Sharma discussed ways to improve trade and investment in infrastructure, healthcare, education, information technology and energy, he said.
India's exports to the United States were at $20.7 billion or 12.7 percent of its total exports in 2007/08, while imports were at $21 billion.
(By Matthias Williams and Rajkumar Ray)
on Reuter