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Congressman wants to scuttle US-India nuclear deal
Myanmar News.Net
Thursday 7th August, 2008
A powerful US Congressman has asked the Bush administration to shelve a nuclear deal with India, unless it can guarantee suspension of trade if India conducts another nuclear test.
In a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Democratic chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Howard Berman, said it would be better to suspend congressional approval of the deal until the next Congress, which convenes in January 2009.
The California Democrat's warning comes amidst hectic efforts by Washington and New Delhi to persuade a 45-nation nuclear group to grant India an unprecedented waiver allowing nuclear trade with a state which has not signed the nuclear no-proliferation treaty.
Once this remaining hurdle is cleared, the administration, which is keen to get the nuclear deal approved before President George Bush leaves office, plans to turn to the Congress for approval of the pact when it reconvenes on September 8th.
A major obstacle was cleared recently when the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, approved an India-specific safeguards agreement on India's civil nuclear plants.
Berman said that the Congress would not act unless the Bush administration pushed for conditions to its waiver.
He also warned that other countries might rush in to take advantage of a more lenient nuclear waiver and do business with India on their own terms, giving the other countries an unacceptable head-start in securing commercial nuclear contracts with the Indian government.
He said: “Such an exemption would be inconsistent with US law, place American firms at a severe competitive disadvantage, and undermine critical US non-proliferation objectives."
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