India & US to boost trade ties

The decision emerged at the Sixth Ministerial-level meeting of India United States Trade Policy Forum (TPF) held here.

Both also agreed to have agreement on promoting bilateral cooperation in further strengthening of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regimes with the objective of further promoting bilateral trade and investment in such areas which need strong IPR safeguards.

“The two governments agreed to work together on a framework for promoting real and meaningful cooperation in trade and investment,” Commerce Minister Anand Sharma told reporter after talks with the U S delegation led by U S Trade Representative Ron Kirk.

“The U S has given us a draft framework for the proposed agreement. We will study and work on the draft framework. Soon we will finalise our views on the draft framework,” he said. Asked about the timeframe for conclusion of the framework Sharma said “we are working on this.”
Asked whether it could be signed during the forthcoming visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the U S, he said “we are already engaged in further accelerating bilateral economic ties. Our objective is to move fast on economic lane.”

On efforts to put Indo-U S dialogue on economic cooperation on fast track, Sharma said both sides decided that Deputy Chairpersons of the Indo U S TPF would meet twice a year to speed up talks on key economic areas as specified in five Focus Groups.