WASHINGTON: An Indian American advocacy group today slammed a US move to blacklist India as a “priority foreign country” (PFC) due to the ongoing trade disputes between Washington and New Delhi.
In a statement, the Washington-based US-India Political Action Committee (USINPAC) announced that it has launched an initiative, “Leadership Dialogues on Fair Trade” to promote conciliatory dialogue rather than acrimony in relations between the two countries.
Trade allegations against India are being mostly led by a coalition of US companies and organisations who have grouped themselves as “Alliance for Free Trade with India”.
The PFC status is given to nations that have the worst IP rights and most negative impact on US competitiveness in global markets, it said.
“This move by some sections of US industry to designate as a PFC country is plain wrong. We urge all parties to come to solutions through dialogue at bilateral or multilateral levels,” said Robinder Sachdev, director of India affairs of USINPAC.
“The governments in US and India must avoid the impression that relations between two countries are adrift. Today the people and businesses of both US and India are engaging more than ever in history, and such disputes should be resolved via dialogue rather than threats and sanction,” he said.
The USINPAC initiative for ” Leadership Dialogues for Fair Trade” includes sensitising the Indian American community regarding the core issues of trade disputes between the US and India, the advocacy group said.
Other steps being rolled out include, outreach and briefings on Capitol Hill with staffers and US lawmakers to apprise them of key issues of divergent opinions between the US and India; and high level trade and business delegations from the US to India, to dialogue and meet with relevant Indian industry sectors at centre of some of these disputes, USINPAC said.
Source: The Economic Times
