India-US Annual Economic Talks - Pranab Timothy summit - No Sums
INDIA and USA are the largest democracies with fairly open economies, but somehow they are not the best of business partners. Trade between the two countries is a fraction of the trade between China and USA.
Legal Corner Icon — the image was hosted by the publisher and was not captured.The United States and India traded about $50 billion in goods in 2010, ranking India 12th on the list of American trading partners. The volume of trade has increased rapidly in recent years, but remains at about one-tenth the level of trade between the United States and China, although the figures do not include the value of services that India sells to the United States.
Addressing the Second Meeting of India-US Financial and Economic Partnership in Washington D.C yesterday, India's Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that the India-US Financial and Economic Partnership which was launched last year in New Delhi, has succeeded in giving an impetus to the rapidly expanding financial and economic engagement between our two countries.
The Indian delegation included, Dr Subbarao, Governor, RBI, R.Gopalan, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Shashi Kant Sharma, Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Dr Kaushik Basu, Chief Economic Adviser, Subhir Gokaran, Deputy Governor, RBI, B.C.Khatua, Chairman, Forward Market Commission and Meera Shankar, Indian Ambassdor to USA.
The US delegation was led by Timothy Geithner, Secretary,US Department of Treasury and included among others Ben S Bernanke, Chairman, Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System, Austan Goolsbee, Chairman, Council of Economic Advisers to the President of US, Mary L Schapiro, Chairman, US Securities and Exchange Commission, Gary Genseles, Chairman, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Martin J Gruenberg, Vice Chairman, FDIC Board of Directors and Nathan Sheets, Director, Division of International Finance.
Pranab Mukherjee said that India as one of the world's fastest growing economies and the United States, the world's largest economy, are committed to achieve a high growth global economy that is both stable and sustainable. He said that through our bilateral engagements and by working together in multilateral fora like the G-20, both the countries can expand economic opportunities and prosperity worldwide.
The US Secretary Timothy Geithner said “India's growth is good for us, just as our growth is good for India”
The Indian Finance Minister saw no hurdle and said, “Through negotiations and conversations we have been able to remove the obstacles that are there.”
Timothy Geithner courteously disagreed, saying, “I cannot improve on that answer, there's a bunch of things that stand in the way of increased trade between the countries, and we'll keep trying to work through those things.”
Finally it was more talks than trade.