Washington: A group of Democrats have urged President George W Bush to negotiate trade barriers and subsidies with five key economic partners, including India.

The group headed by Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, House of Representatives Minority Leader asked the White House to "pressurise" India, China, Japan and the EU (European Union) over trade barriers and subsidies, and if negotiations fail, "haul them up" before the World Trade Organization.

They say that three years of negotiations have achieved little progress on key barriers for US exporters.

Richard Mills, a spokesman for the US Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Zoellick, said that the administration has resolved through negotiations a dispute over non-tariff barriers by India to keep out US textiles.

"We prefer to solve problems rather than file lawsuits," he said, rebuffing the Democrats.

The administration pointed out that they are not shy over filing WTO cases but they do so only after efforts at country-to-country agreements fail.

"We are focused on getting results. There are different tools we use to get results," said John Vernoneau, General Counsel at USTR.

The USTR's national trade estimates report released yesterday (Apr 1, 2004) cited 55 countries, including India, where US exporters face the worst trade barriers. India is cited over non-tariff barriers on US textiles and other products and alleged non-enforcement of US copyrights and trademarks.

It notes that the US ran a $9 billion trade deficit with India in 2003. "One cause of this imbalance," it says, "is India's heavily protected market, which even after steps taken in recent months remains one of the most heavily protected in the world."