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U.S. seeks to step up India trade talks after WTO deal

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The United States wants to step up its trade dialogue with India, Trade Representative Michael Froman said on November 24, after the resolution of a global trade dispute paved the way for President Barack Obama to visit India. Direct contacts between Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi this month helped to end a deadlock that had prevented the World Trade Organization from implementing a $1 trillion package of reforms to global customs rules. In India for the first round of high-level trade talks since the breakthrough, Froman urged progress on key areas of U.S. concern such as intellectual property rights on pharmaceuticals and Hollywood movies. "This pace of engagement is impressive, but shouldn't be surprising for what President Obama declared the defining partnership of the 21st century," Froman told a business group in New Delhi. "Our task is to build on our mutual interests, with mutual respect, and deliver on the promise of that partnership," added Froman, according to extracts of his speech released in advance. Obama, who hosted Modi in Washington in September, will in January become the first U.S. president to visit India twice, completing a remarkable warming in the relationship between the leaders of the world's two largest democracies.