New Delhi: A delegation of US Congressmen, all members of India Caucus, on April 18 met Commerce and Industry Minister Arun Jaitley and explored avenues for additional foreign direct investment (FDI) in India while discussing a wide-range of issues including a controversial New Jersey legislation.

The four Congressmen, Joseph Crowley, Sheila Jackson-Lee, Chris Bell and Kendrick B Meek, along with US Ambassador Robert D Blackwill, held discussions with Jaitley for more than half-an-hour, official sources said.

They expressed concern over the huge bilateral trade deficit that favours India and briefed the Minister on American government's stand on a New Jersey legislation that proposes to ban "outsourcing" of government procurements.

According to them, the Indian exports to US stood at $ 12 billion while the imports were pegged only at four billion USD.

However, Jaitley said the large exports from India reflected the competitiveness of the Indian goods in price and quality and made known the popular sentiments in India against the proposed legislation banning outsourcing.

After the meeting, Crowley told reporters that the delegation being members of the Indian Caucus, which now has 157 Congressmen as members, wanted to explore avenues for more foreign direct investment in the country.

While inquiring about the FDI caps in certain sectors and the legislative support for foreign investments, they wanted to know about the manner in which the impasse over Dabhol power project (promoted by US company Enron) was being tackled and the lessons learnt from the controversy.

PTI