Bush: US should welcome competition

HYDERABAD, India - President Bush urged Americans worried about a U.S. job drift to India and other countries to welcome, not fear, competition with this rapidly growing nation of 1 billion. "The classic opportunity for our American farmers and entrepreneurs and small businesses to understand is there is a 300 million-person market of middle class citizens here in India," Bush said Friday during a discussion with young entrepreneurs at a business school here, "and that if we can make a product they want, that it becomes viable." A day earlier, Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inked a deal for the United States to provide nuclear fuel, reactors and know-how to help this energy-starved nation meet its growing demand for power, while allowing it to continue developing nuclear weapons. "Yesterday was a way to put the Cold War behind us," Bush said of the historic nuclear accord. As part of an effort to nurture economic ties with a nation that was once estranged from the United States, the president flew here to take in both this city's high-tech activity that is helping to drive rapid economic growth and the rural areas around it that lag behind. The meeting with business leaders and an earlier tour around the dusty campus of an agricultural college were aimed at showcasing ways the United States and India can cooperate to spur innovation across industries. India's exploding economy has created millions of jobs. India's outsourcing industry alone is expected to bring in $22 billion in revenue this fiscal year, much of that generated by U.S. companies. "People do lose jobs as a result of globalization and it's painful for those who lose jobs," Bush acknowledged. "Globalization provides great opportunities." The boom has created millions of jobs along with consumer demands that have attracted American businesses. A luxury goods market has even emerged, with brands like Louis Vuitton and Rolls Royce setting up shop along with consumer demands that have attracted American businesses. Though 80 percent of Indians live on less than $2 a day, India's middle class has swelled to a number larger the population of the entire United States. The U.S. trade deficit with India, however, nearly doubled between 2001 and 2005 to $10 billion. At Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Bush watched Indians using sticks and tools to hand-till soil around young peanuts, tomatoes and soybeans. Bush was greeted here by the heavy presence of police and paramilitary soldiers. Black flags flew above buildings in the predominantly Muslim Charminar quarter, where shops were closed in protest. Several hundred communist and Muslim demonstrators, chanting "Bush hands off India" and "Bush go home," carried posters of Osama bin Laden and burned an effigy of the American president. "We are protesting against George Bush because he is a warmonger," said B.V. Raghavulu, a leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). There was also a protest against Bush Friday in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir. Later Friday, Bush was flying to Pakistan for an overnight visit under tight security to a close ally struggling with terrorism problems. An American diplomat and three other people were killed when a suicide attacker rammed a car packed with explosives into theirs. The bombing on Thursday was in Karachi, about 1,000 miles south of Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, where Bush will meet with Pervez Musharraf, the military leader who took power in a 1999 coup. U.S. officials said there was evidence the U.S. diplomat, foreign service officer David Foy, was targeted. "Terrorists and killers are not going to prevent me from going to Pakistan," Bush said at a news conference Thursday in New Delhi with Singh. Bush aides said there were security concerns about the president going to Pakistan but that officials were satisfied adequate precautions were in place. "But this is not a risk-free undertaking," said national security adviser Stephen Hadley. Eight months in the making, the nuclear accord Bush and Singh announced Thursday would reverse decades of U.S. policy and end India's long isolation as a nuclear maverick that defied world appeals and developed nuclear weapons. India agreed to separate its tightly entwined nuclear industry — declaring 14 reactors as commercial facilities and eight as military — and to open the civilian side to international inspections for the first time. The agreement must be approved by Congress, and Bush acknowledged that might be difficult. India still refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, and skeptics worry that India's military nuclear program would remain outside of international safeguards. The United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, gave its endorsement, calling the deal "an important step towards satisfying India's growing need for energy, including nuclear technology and fuel, as an engine for development." "It would also bring India closer as an important partner in the nonproliferation game," IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei said in a statement. The nuclear agreement drew fire from some in Congress. Critics have complained the deal undermines efforts to prevent states like Iran and North Korea from acquiring nuclear weapons. "With one simple move the president has blown a hole in the nuclear rules that the entire world has been playing by and broken his own word to assure that we will not ship nuclear technology to India without the proper safeguards," said Rep. Edward Markey (news, bio, voting record) of Massachusetts, senior Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "While I believe that the Congress will support this agreement, it is important to take into consideration the nonproliferation concerns raised by some of my colleagues," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn, said. The White House said India was unique because it had protected its nuclear technology and not been a proliferator. The administration also argued it was a good deal because it would provide international oversight for part of a program that has been secret since India entered the nuclear age in 1974. The deal also could be a boon for American companies that have been barred from selling reactors and material to India. -AP