In his latest visit to India, President Bush has said that the US was looking forward to eat Indian Mangoes.
Indian Mangoes will lend a sweet flavour to Indo-US trade relations, with President George W Bush, today saying that America was looking forward to eating the exotic fruit from India, the import of which was banned until now. "The United States is looking forward to eating Indian mangoes as part of liberalising trades and opening markets," Bush said here in his joint press conference with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, after bilateral discussions. "As a result of your leadership and our hard work, we are opening markets," the President said. And in keeping with the mood of the day, alphonso mango kulfi was on the menu for desserts at a lunch hosted by the Prime Minister in honour of the visiting dignitary. The US authorities have agreed to consider lifting of sanitary ban on its imports. Indian mangoes were banned from entering the US as the authorities had not conducted a Pest Risk Analysis (PRA), required for Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) clearance. US Trade Representative Rob Portman, who was yesterday served mangoes during a meeting with Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, had indicated that an announcement on lifting the ban is likely by Bush during his visit to India. India had requested for a PRA about 19 years ago and US authorities have not completed the process. While China has allowed import of Indian mangoes, Australia and Japan, which also have stringent SPS requirements were now looking at allowing entry to the king of fruits. Asit K. Ghosh http://www.asitghosh.com Rockledge, Florida 32955, USA LATI 28* 19' 5" North / LONG 80* 43' 41" West
