The Hindu Business Line : `Ties with India driven by economic growth'

The US does not view its growing bilateral trade relationship with India as a response to China. It is driven by the growth in the Indian economy, according to Mr Karan K. Bhatia, Deputy US Trade Representative.

"I know some people would like to portray the growing closeness of our trade relationship with India as a response to China. It is not," he told Business Line here recently.

He pointed out that the growth in the Indian economy was a result of the reforms, and the reform process would drive the future of Indo-US economic relationship.

During his visit to India, Mr Bhatia had discussions with Government of India officials as part of the US-India Trade Policy Forum, a mechanism to address trade policy issues between the two countries.

Intellectual property

The US, Mr Bhatia said, would like to see India have a strong intellectual property rights (IPR) regime. India had enacted a patent law and the US would like to see India framing a strong copyright Act with strict enforcement.

"We do not hear from US companies operating in India the same level of concerns as we hear about their operations in China. The Chinese issue is not just a domestic market issue, but also an export issue. We have seen too many counterfeit goods from China trying to enter the US market," he said. However, he said, China had done a few good things on the IPR issue as well.

The Chinese leadership had said it was committed to addressing the IPR issues. The problem was between laudable statements of intent and what was actually happening on the ground.

Mr Bhatia, who among other subjects looked after trade relations with East Asia (including China) and South Asia, said earlier this year the US undertook a comprehensive review of its trade policy with China.

It concluded that although the US had benefited a great deal from trade with China, the bilateral trade relationship itself was not "sufficiently durable or equitable" and that the US trade policy needed to be re-adjusted in certain ways.

One of these was going to be in more vigorous enforcement with respect to China, he said.

Towards this end, the US recently, along with the EU and Canada, sought creation of a WTO panel with China on its auto taxes that were applied on the US and other countries.

He listed three areas of concern for the US with regard to China. They were: Intellectual property rights - the US remained concerned by the evidence on the ground, where the US and other countries were not seeing those rights enforced; market access - US companies were concerned that the Chinese market remained closed to them; and, the distortions in the Chinese economy.

The Chinese Government, he said, either through subsidies or other mechanisms was creating an un-level playing field for non-Chinese companies seeking to compete in that market.

On the one hand, trade with China was growing, but on the other the relationship needed "to be stronger, more durable and more equitable," he said.

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