WASHINGTON, June 14 (Reuters): Maintaining that "openness" is necessary for economies and people to prosper, a top Bush administration official feels that despite a healthy growth rate the pace of reforms in India appears to have "slowed".
"Since 1991, when then Finance Minister Manmohan Singh began sweeping reforms, India has enjoyed remarkable growth of about 8.5 per cent annually. That's more than double the growth rate from India's independence until then. The message is clear: the faster India opens, the faster India grows. However, we are concerned that the pace of reform appears to have slowed," Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said.
"We believe improvements in market access, easing of investment restrictions, tariffs reductions, and the elimination of barriers in food trade should continue because it is good for India.
"India, like the US must decide if it will continue the openness that has brought so much prosperity, or risk sliding backward," he said at United States India Business Council (USIBC) 33rd Anniversary celebrations here.
Gutierrez also announced the setting up of the Department of Commerce's India Business Centre which will provide American companies business counselling and market intelligence that's critical to successfully doing business in India.
"The US and India are two great democracies. And we know that our systems require compromise for the greater good. Sometimes our leaders have to make tough choices that are in our long-term national interests," Gutierrez said.
Speaking about global food crisis, Gutirrez said, "many countries have unilaterally lowered food tariffs in response to the rising food crisis. Yet many of these countries balk at eliminating these same tariffs within the Doha negotiations. Here's where national interests could be linked to the global good. By making permanent agriculture reforms, we can boost farm trade and expand access to food."
Gutierrez also argued that nothing could immediately help the world's poor more than the completion of a meaningful and ambitious Doha round.
