Washington D.C., May 3 (KNN) The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) of United States has urged the Commerce Department of the country to discuss with India the issues pertaining to trade barriers so that the American companies can invest more in the country’s growing market.

NAM, the largest manufacturing association in the United States representing small and large manufacturers in every industrial sector and in all 50 states, has written a letter to Secretary of Commerce, Penny Pritzker in this context.

“A particular focus of the NAM) and its members is tackling trade barriers in major foreign priority markets, such as India. India today is the world’s fastest growing large economy and ranks as the world’s third largest economy by World Bank statistics on purchasing power parity (PPP). Significant trade barriers, however, remain in areas such as tariffs and trade facilitation, localization policies, intellectual property rights protection, and the ease of doing business,” the letter said.

Concrete and sustained progress is needed to address these troublesome issues that undermine the ability of manufacturers in the United States to forge a more robust commercial relationship with India, it added.

“Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi first came into office in May 2014 with a positive message that India was “open for business,” the U.S. and Indian governments have partnered to expand their commercial relationship, including the renewal of two critical forums to discuss economic and commercial issues: the U.S.-India Strategic & Commercial Dialogue (S&CD) and the U.S.-India Trade Policy Forum (TPF). These dialogues are important channels to resolve outstanding commercial issues, but must move beyond rhetoric to capture concrete deliverables,” the letter mentioned.

‘…manufacturers in the United States are seeking tangible progress on India’s stated goals of improving the ease of doing business in India and advancing manufacturing and innovation in its economy to increase investment and growth,” the letter written by Jay Timmon, NAM CEO said.

NAM said India is a global economic power with rising household incomes and a burgeoning middle class. It is the world's fastest growing large economy - ahead of China - and is ranked by the World Bank as the world's third largest economy by purchasing power parity (PPP) - ahead of Japan.