Perturbed by the moves in the United States to put fresh visa restrictions on IT personnel, India on Thursday said it would soon take up the contentious issue with the authorities in Washington as it was creating 'trade distortions'.

"I will take it (visa restriction issue) with the US when I visit the country next week," Commerce and Law Minister Arun Jaitley told PTI.

Terming the proposed legal measures for restricting movement of software personnel from India through L-1 visa as 'non-tariff barrier', Jaitley said India would seek further relaxation on the existing visa conditions for free movement of service sector professionals to boost bilateral trade.

Stating that the US was India's major trading partner with trade totalling to around $16 billion last year, Jaitley said the visa restrictions was a dichotomy at a time when the developed countries were pressing for access to third world country markets in areas where they were strong.

"Market access cannot be confined only to the developed countries but also should be extended to the developing nations," he said.

On the proposed New Jersey legislation and similar proposed laws by some American states to restrict government procurement to domestic companies, the minister said though at present it was not much but such a legislation would hinder movement of professionals, an issue vigorously pursued by India at World Trade Organisation.

Asked about India's trade prospects particularly in the backdrop of the deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome affecting the neighbouring economies including China, and American operations in Iraq, Jaitley said these would rather help improve the already robust performance by the export sector.

Despite the global slowdown after the September 11 terrorist strikes in the US, the export sector have performed brilliantly and grew by 18 per cent, he said.