NEW
DELHI: The first senior US government official to visit India after a
damaging diplomatic row said Thursday the two countries should focus on
"talk and trade" as they look to get their partnership back on track.
In
December, Indian consulate official Devyani Khobragade was arrested and
strip-searched in New York on suspicion of visa fraud, enraging Indian
authorities who claimed that she had diplomatic immunity.
The
incident fuelled a bitter row between the world's two largest
democracies, which have overcome Cold War suspicions to embrace each
other as trading partners and strategic allies in recent years.
Nisha
Desai Biswal, US assistant secretary of state for South and Central
Asian Affairs, acknowledged problems in a speech in the Indian capital
but urged both sides to overcome their differences.
"We're addressing these concerns head-on as good partners do," she said, adding: "The solution is to talk and trade."
The
lack of transparency in Indian tax laws, red tape, and weak protection
of intellectual property rights were discouraging investments in India,
Biswal said as she listed a series of US concerns.
She also
highlighted that India has ranked a dismal 134 out of 189 countries in
world rankings for hospitable places to "invest and start a new
business".
Annual trade between India and the US currently stands
at $100 billion but the two sides have pledged to increase this figure
five-fold over the next decade.
While highlighting India's
strategic importance, Biswal said the US was eager for better relations
between the South Asia giant and its neighbours to the west -- Pakistan
and Afghanistan -- and central and southeastern Asia.
"In the
coming years, the most important step India can take to promote greater
connectivity is to normalise trade with Pakistan," she said.
Meanwhile,
a leading Indian business body hit out at growing pressure from within
the US for Washington to sanction India over alleged drug patent and
other intellectual property rights abuses.
The Federation of
Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) said the country
adhered fully to international treaty obligations to safeguard
intellectual property rights.
The US Chamber of Commerce last
month urged the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR)
to label India a "Priority Foreign Country", a classification given to
those seen as the worst at safeguarding intellectual property rights.
The
chamber's move was designed to "create pressure on India" to increase
intellectual property protection beyond the TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects
of Intellectual Property Rights) agreement administered by the World
Trade Organization, the FICCI said.
The US campaign "aims to protect private corporate interests over national interests", added the Indian trade body.
India's
laws are tougher on drug patent-holders than those in many other
countries as it seeks to make medicines more affordable for its vast
poor population.
But foreign drugmakers have accused India of
failing to respect intellectual property rights so that it can promote
its own generics industry -- a charge New Delhi strongly denies.
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