Union Commerce Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman co-chaired a meeting of the US-India Trade Policy Forum in the US.
The US is appreciative of the series of reforms initiated by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government but feels that it is not happening at the pace it wants, according to Union Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
"Reform is happening but it is happening much slower than they would want it to happen," she said after concluding the 9th round of US-India Trade Policy Forum meeting which she co-chaired along with US Trade Representative Mike Froman.
Later in the evening she interacted with the American business community at a reception hosted in her honour by the US-India Business Council (USIBC).
"They (Americans) wanted it (reforms) to be much speedier, quicker," the minister said. At the same time, they concede that in India it is better to be steady and slow, she noted.
During the meeting, both sides welcomed the substantive progress in promoting bilateral trade and investment since the last TPF meeting in November 2014; and discussed future plans for continuing engagement at the technical and official level for deepening economic and commercial cooperation in areas of mutual interest.
The discussions focused on four broad work streams including Agriculture, Trade in Goods and Services, Investment in Manufacturing and Intellectual Property.
"We invited their active participation even as we were forming the policy. We invited them to ask any number of questions whether to patents or copyrights. We have not left even one question unanswered. So the readiness to talk, the readiness to answer question has actually helped to remove any apprehensions that they would have had in their minds," Ms Sitharaman said.
"In today's India, I am not frustrated at all. In fact if there is a movement, it is happening now. If there is a change, it is happening now," she said.
Praising the increased engagement between technical and senior officials on intellectual property (IP), the two sides reviewed the results of the dialogues on copyrights, trade secrets, patents, traditional knowledge and the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL), standard essential patents, genetic resources, and IP policies that took place in 2015.
Noting the holistic approach to health and the advantages of traditional medicine in certain cases, both sides recognised the gains from the enhanced cooperation since the last TPF and agreed to explore further the potential of mutual collaboration in the field of Traditional Medicine (AYUSH).