The Indo-US civilian nuclear deal inked between New Delhi and the Washington last year, opens door for more American export to India, an official US report has said.
The Indo-US civilian nuclear deal inked between New Delhi and the Washington last year, opens door for more American export to India, an official US report has said.
"The Civil Nuclear Agreement signed on October 10, 2008, opens the door even wider for US exports to help India meet its tremendous energy needs," the report '2009 Trade
Policy Agenda and 2008 Annual Report' of the US Trade Representative (USTR) said.
US companies, which played a crucial role in the passage of the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, expect to receive a considerable chunk of the orders when India starts
expanding its new set of nuclear power plants across the country, experts feel.
A high-level delegation of US nuclear companies was in India recently to explore business possibilities. The USTR in its latest report, however, said many challenges to trade and investment in India persist. The USTR continued to work with the Indian government to address such concerns as India's tariff and tax regime; intellectual property rights policies, investment climate and regulatory hurdles.
"India continues to limit market access in various sectors through non-tariff barriers such as high border taxes and tariffs, foreign direct investment caps, non-transparent
procedures, and discriminatory treatment of imports," it said.
Despite all these barriers, trade expanded rapidly. In 2008, bilateral goods trade totaled USD 45 billion. Bilateral services trade totaled USD 19 billion in 2007, the report said.
Referring to the series of meeting between US Trade Representative Susan Schawb and the Indian Commerce minister Kamal Nath, the report said the two met a number of times in the context of the Doha Round negotiations in an effort to find common ground in the pursuit of an ambitious outcome.
Intellectual Property Rights is another contentious issue between the two countries, the report said, adding that Washington been working constructively with New Delhi to
improve its IPR regime. There has been some progress in India's protection of intellectual property rights (IPR), including through the introduction of the proposed Drugs and Cosmetics (Amendment) Bill 2008 that will increase penalties for spurious and adulterated pharmaceuticals and create a customs record system, the report noted.
However, India still needs to improve its copyright regime to address issues related to protection of digital works on the Internet, strengthen its patent regime, provide
effective data protection for pharmaceutical and agricultural chemicals, and increase enforcement against piracy and counterfeiting, it added.
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