Coimbatore, Aug 7 Andrew T Simkin, Consul General of the USA has said that Washington supports free trade with New Delhi to further bilateral ties.

He said this while speaking at a seminar on Engineering Services Outsourcing Opportunities and Challenges that was jointly hosted by the South India Engineering Manufacturing Association and the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce here on Thursday.

"For United States of America, we support of free trade. We are in support of strong ties between India and United States and further developing the economic relationships between the two countries as well as the relationship in so many other areas of cooperation," said Simkin.

He also said that trade potentials have been identified in fields like computers, food processing, electrical appliances, education and allied services, transmission equipment, oil and natural gas refineries, retail and franchising, textiles among others.

India and the United States have initiated talks after elections were over in their countries.

In June this year, India's Commerce Minister Anand Sharma and the US Trade Representative Ron Kirk agreed to work together towards resolving 'outstanding issues'.

However, there are concerns among some trading partners such as India that the Doha round of talks could be delayed, if Washington raised new issues and tried to renegotiate on already-agreed issues. (ANI)