Keen To Have A Bilateral Investment Treaty With India: U.S.

MUMBAI: Holding that transparency, predictability and upholding the rule of law are essential for better ties, a senior American diplomat today said the U.S. is keen to restart work on a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) with India for deepening economic relationship.

"The Indian-U.S. bilateral investment treaty has stalled a bit and it is time to get it back on track," Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs Charles Rivkin told reporters here.

Rivkin, who is in the country to participate in the maiden India-U.S. Technology Summit to be held in New Delhi next week, said the last meeting on the pact took place in February this year and the U.S. is eager to know and address the obstacles surrounding it.

"If we can identify what the blocks and obstacles are, we can move forward...It (BIT) is very important to us and it can be a terrific foundation for the bilateral economic relationship," he said, adding that the U.S. has already had 15 rounds of negotiations with China on a similar deal.

He said the Narendra Modi government is also working to change things and specifically pointed out to Prime Minister's comments about need to up the country's low ranking in the ease of doing business from the current 142.

"There seems to be an impatience on behalf of the Indian government to change and get things going. I'd like to believe that part of that could be a BIT which could set the rules of the road between our two countries and facilitate two-way investments and ultimately trade," he said.

On the FDI flows into the country, the senior Obama administration official acknowledged that Modi had a terrific visit in the US earlier, but underscored that investors need more than perceptions for taking their call.

"American investor is not going to make an investment based on press release for a visit or perceptions, it will be about fundamental things," he said.

"When American investora approach any market, they are going to look for at least presence of transparency, predictability and the rule of law," Rivkin said.

He specifically referred to the contentious issue of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), which has dominated the agenda of visiting U.S. officials for some time, describing it as very crucial, and cited the example of entertainment industry.
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