New Delhi: India is likely to sign a treaty with the US for speedier action to boost investment agreements, Parliament was informed today. The US has expressed desire to sign a treaty similar to the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) signed with Japan and Korea, Minister of State for Finance, Arjun Ram Meghwal said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.
"However, Japan and Korea FTAs were signed based on the earlier Model Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) text of India but the negotiations with the US will be on the basis of the new Indian Model Bilateral Investment Treaty text," Meghwal said.
He was replying to a question on whether the US has been pressuring India to accede to a treaty similar to FTA that the country had signed with Japan and Korea. Meghwal said technical discussions with the US side have been held on the ongoing basis to speed up the pending bilateral investment treaty.
Earlier, the US had expressed concerns that the absence of a bilateral investment treaty with India is an impediment to expanding trade between the two countries. The US has pitched for tax certainty and fairness, less regulatory burden, adequate infrastructure and power as well as access to legal services.
Richard Rahul Verma, the US Ambassador to India, in February had urged the government to permit US law firms and lawyers to set up base in India, calling for "reciprocity". He contended that there was no citizenship requirement for Indian lawyers who wish to establish offices in the US.
"We think it is important because it would contribute to economic growth and foreign direct investment," he had said. Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had also called for re-negotiating India's bilateral investment pacts and replace them with new ones.
"India proposes to renegotiate all those bilateral investment pacts whose initial validity has expired and to replace them with new Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs)," she had said in Parliament last month.
