U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk has announced a postponement of the eighth round of the U.S.-India Trade Policy Forum, which had been scheduled for Jan. 12-13 in New Delhi, PTI reported Jan. 10.

“While considerable progress on developing the agenda for the TPF has been made, in view of the amount of preparatory work that remains to be done, the U.S. and India have decided to postpone the TPF until later this year," said an official USTR statement.

“The additional time will allow us to further develop the TPF agenda and related activities. We look forward to a highly productive Trade Policy Forum in 2012,” the statement added.

While no other reasons were given for the abrupt postponement of the trip, PTI reported that Kirk is not satisfied by the steps being taken by India to liberalize its economy. In that light, the delay could be viewed as a major setback in the improved trade and economic relationship between the two countries.

The US-India Trade Policy Forum, an inter-agency collaboration led by the U.S. Trade Representative, has five focus groups: Agriculture, Investment, Innovation and Creativity (intellectual property rights), Services, and Tariff and Non-Tariff Barriers.

In March 2010, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma and Kirk signed the new US-India Framework for Trade and Investment.

PTI reported that the first significant step taken under the new framework was the launch of an initiative to integrate U.S. and Indian small businesses into the global supply chain. The program is seen as boosting President Obama’s National Export Initiative and Prime Minister Singh’s recent budget objectives.

In December, a bipartisan group of 10 U.S. senators urged President Obama to expedite negotiations on a bilateral investment treaty with India.

The signers included Senate India Caucus co-chairs Mark Warner and John Cornyn and Joseph Lieberman, Kay Hutchison, Robert Menendez, Jeanne Shaheen, Mark Begich, Michael Bennet, Christopher Coons and Mark Kirk, PTI said.