Indian Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who is currently on a four-day trip to Washington, is facing higher concerns from U.S. businessmen now than a few years ago when it comes to investing in India.
The U.S. Trade Representatives David Cote and Mike Froman pointed out that India needed to address the concerns of the American business people on a range of policy issues if it wanted to attract foreign direct investment in the country, reported PTI.
While praising India's effort to reform its business policies, the U.S. leaders said its bilateral trade with New Delhi was far behind than with the Beijing government.
"It is recoverable. That is why it is so important that we are requesting the Government of India to address these issues so that we can maintain the strong foundations for a good US India relationship," said Mike Froman.
"There was a very frank discussion, wherein body held back any issues," added Froman.
"Over the last two years we have felt a cooling when it comes to US interests in investing in India. They are cooling, because we have seen a number of actions taken, each explainable in itself but cumulatively causing US investors to say aaaann, you know, I may be wanting to think up a little bit more," said David Cote.
The leaders signaled that it was very unlikely for the American business people to invest in India unless New Delhi addressed the grievances of the U.S. businesses.
"There is more concern now about investing in India than was a few years ago. This is all very recoverable," said Cote.
The Indian finance minister is in the U.S. to attract more investments in India in order to combat the dramatic fall of the Indian rupee in recent weeks.
