Trade Crude Oil

Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The next top American diplomat to India batted confidently as the Obama administration nominee while fielding questions from lawmakers on subjects ranging from trade agreements to Iran sanctions at a confirmation hearing on Tuesday.

Commenting on Indian implementation of Iranian sanctions, the first woman U.S. ambassador-designate to India, Nancy Powell, assured senators that implementation of sanctions would be one of her top priorities when she is in New Delhi as the U.S. ambassador to India.

Powell is nominated to replace Timothy Roemer, who resigned from his post in April 2011 following a two-year stint as U.S. envoy to India.

Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Powell told the panel not to be worried about the Iranian sanctions, adding, “India shares with us a desire to see a non-nuclear state in Iran. They have supported us in the IAEA four times.”

Citing the visiting Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Matai, Powell said, “Foreign Secretary Matai, yesterday, in his public remarks, commented that there already appears to be a reduction in the percentage of oil that India receives from Iran out of its total imports. That would be a very good sign.”

She highlighted the bilateral goods and services trade between the two democracies as it was set to cross a record $100 billion mark this year.

“This represents an astounding quadrupling of trade since 2000, moving India up from our 25th largest trading partner to our 12th,” Powell said. “I look forward to working with a wide inter-agency team and with our Indian counterparts to reduce barriers, including through negotiation of a bilateral investment treaty, and to expand the areas where we do business.”

With a booming population of 1.2 billion backed by a healthy growing economy, India presented an exponentially expanding market for American goods, the ambassador-designate said.

Noting that American exports to India were growing at more than 17 percent a year, Powell said, “At this rate, exports from the United States to India are expected to nearly double in the five years from 2009 to 2014.”

On the ongoing controversial civilian nuclear deal that has bogged down in safety measure law framings, Powell said, “I am eager to support the efforts to ensure full implementation of the Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, including ensuring a level playing field for American companies in the commercial applications of nuclear energy.”

A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Powell currently serves as director general of the Foreign Service and director of human resources at the Department of State. She was conferred the personal rank of Career Ambassador in January 2011.

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