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US big business turn heat on India on eve of Modi-Obama summit - The Times of India
WASHINGTON: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is hitting all the conciliatory buttons ahead of his meeting with President Barack Obama on Monday. Visiting the 9/11 Memorial to express solidarity with the United States, reaching out to American lawmakers at Madison Square Gardens, and meeting US business leaders in private meetings in his New York Palace Suite.
But in an ominous sign that things are yet not all that well between the two sides, a US legislative panel has sought an extended second investigation into India's trade practices, echoing continued complaints by American businesses on tariff issues and intellectual property rights protection. Top Democrats and Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee sent a letter on Thursday to the International Trade Commission (ITC) asking for an updated report on the India's trade policies that they allege discriminate against US exports and investment.
"In particular, we request that you include information about any significant changes by the new Indian government to the trade and investment policies identified in the ITC's first report," they wrote, making it amply clear their move was aimed at ramping up pressure on the Modi government on the eve of the Prime Minister's US visit. The first report, requested last year during the UPA government's rule, is due to Congress by December 15 and will cover India's policy track from 2003 through mid-2014. Details of the second investigation would be due to Congress by September 15, 2015.
"We expect that this new investigation will allow the Commission to meet with relevant Indian government officials in the new Bharatiya Janata Party-led government and seek additional information from US firms on any developments in India relevant to the scope of matters identified in our original August 2013 request," the lawmakers wrote in a letter to ITC Chairman Meredith Broadbent.
Signatories to the letter included House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (Republican) and ranking member Sandy Levin (Democrat), both from Michigan, the big manufacturing state that has bled jobs, and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (Democrat from Oregon) and the panel's top Republican, Orrin Hatch of Utah.
The letter echoes the ceaseless carping from US big business about what they say are restrictive Indian markets and economy. New Delhi says it is effecting changes, but it is best to do so incrementally in some areas. The campaign against India follows the well-worn American style of lobbying. "Okay, you've convinced me. Now go out there and bring pressure on me," President Franklin Roosevelt once told a US business delegation.
In a similar letter to Obama recently, the US Chamber of Commerce, along with 15 other business and corporate associations, urged him to seek more clarity on policy reforms from Modi, saying, "previous Indian government pursued a variety of policies that prevented US companies from contributing fully to India's economic growth and development."
Their complaints included high tariffs, discriminatory local content requirements, domestic regulations at odds with international standards; denying patents and revoking patents, and failing to combat piracy of music, films, and software.
