"Obama announces trade deals with India worth billions."

[Clio the Leo]

Obama announces trade deals with India worth billions
msnbc.com news services

MUMBAI, India — President Barack Obama announced a host of new trade deals with India supporting tens of thousands of U.S. jobs Saturday as he began a 10-day trip through Asia on a determinedly domestic note.

Intent on demonstrating his attention to the sluggish U.S. economy even while overseas, Obama also told a meeting of U.S. and Indian executives that the U.S. would relax some export regulations that have complicated trade between America and this fast-growing country of 1.2 billion people.

"As we look to India today, the United States sees the opportunity to sell our exports in one of the fastest growing markets in the world. In America this is a jobs strategy," the president said in a speech to the U.S.-India Business Council.

Obama said it should be a "win-win" relationship, but in a nod to U.S. sensibilities he also acknowledged concerns in the U.S. about outsourcing.

"There still exists a caricature of India as a land of call centers," the president said.

He said people in India also are concerned about the impact of U.S. goods coming into their country, but contended that growing trade could only benefit both sides in the long run. He said he sees huge untapped potential in the relationship, noting that India doesn't even rank among America's top 10 trading partners.

"There is no reason this nation can't be one of our top trading partners," the president said.

To that end he said the U.S. would put forward a package of reforms on export controls that resulted from past administrations' concerns about India's nuclear industry. The changes, which have been much sought-after in the business community, include relaxing controls on India's purchase of so-called "dual use" technologies that could be used for civilian or military purposes, and removing a few of the last remaining Indian companies on a so-called "entities list" of groups that face restrictions on doing business in the U.S.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40039589/ns/politics/