New Delhi, June 08: Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley will leave today for the United States in order to promote Indo-US trade and economic relations. The minister's entourage would include Confederation of Indian Industries' chief economist Omkar Goswami, secretary general Tarun Das and northern region chairman Gautam Thapar, a CII release said yesterday.
Jaitley will also be accompanied by the commerce secretary and other senior officials from the ministry. The maiden visit of Jaitley to the US assumes significance in the light of forthcoming Cancun WTO meet and various multilateral and bilateral discussions which are currently underway.
Key bilateral issues like the restoration of generalised system of preferences (GSP) benefits to chemicals and pharmaceuticals, US legislation on outsourcing, anti-dumping action on several Indian products, H-1B and l-1 visa issues, are likely to figure in the talks with the US officials. The US is India's largest trading partner and foremost export destination, accounting for about 20 per cent of India's total exports.
The minister is scheduled to visit New York and Washington and will meet Robert Zoellick, the US trade representative, and Donald Evans, US secretary of commerce.
The CII team that will accompany Jaitley includes SRF group CEO Ravi Sinha, TCS president Arup Gupta, Wipro Spectramind chief Raman Roy, Polaris senior vice president Ashish Sinha and ICICI One Source president Susheel Kurien. Bureau Report