Leading US congressmen have called on President Donald Trump to press Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to remove barriers to US trade and investment when they meet for the first time on Monday. The lawmakers, from the Republican and Democratic parties, said in a letter to Trump that high-level engagement with India had failed to eliminate major trade and investment barriers and had not deterred India from imposing new ones. The lawmakers – Republican House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady and Ranking Member Richard Neal, and Republican Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch and Ranking Member Ron Wyden – said the bilateral economic relationship “severely underperforms” as a result of India’s failure to enact market-based reforms. Modi Modi slogan as PM meets with expats at Joint Base Andrews. The lawmakers also pointed to limitations on foreign participation in professional services, restrictive foreign equity caps for financial, retail, and other major services sectors and barriers to digital trade and Internet services.

Source: Dhaka Tribune June 25, 2017 03:56 UTC