ENERGY & COMMERCE COMMITTEE
CHAIRMAN FRED UPTON
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 27, 2013 |
CONTACT: Press Office |
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Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee Convenes Hearing on A Tangle of Trade Barriers: How India’s Industrial Policy is Hurting U.S. Companies
Live Webcast
Click here to watch the hearing beginning at 10 a.m. ET
Opening Statement of Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee Chairman Lee Terry
I appreciate everyone joining us for today’s hearing which will focus on a very timely issue: how India’s trade policies are affecting U.S. companies and the broader impact these policies may have on the American economy.
For a long time, India has been considered a close trading partner of the United States. Since the 1990s, U.S. trade in goods with India has flourished into a relationship worth nearly $60 billion a year. In the last decade alone, the U.S. has become India’s second largest export market. And this relationship is not completely one-sided: in 2012 the U.S. exported about $20 billion in goods to India, making it our 18th largest export market. A large percentage of these exports being defense related, which is critical to maintaining strong ties with one our closest military allies in the region. Read more… Opening Statement of Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton
This is a timely hearing on a topic of great importance to both U.S. companies and the public at large. We have a strong and growing trade relationship with India, as well as an important strategic alliance on the world stage. A key U.S. advantage in our trade with India is our strength in innovation and the resulting intellectual property – from high-tech, to green-tech, to medical technology. India is an important investment partner for a number of U.S. companies in these fields, but unfortunately, these companies like Pfizer in southwest Michigan are facing a serious threat to their intellectual property, thus jeopardizing the trade relationship we have with India in those industries.
India has not been a battleground in the effort to protect intellectual property in recent years, but with recent developments, that soon may change. While the use of compulsory licenses is permitted under international trade agreements, their use should be reserved for serious situations such as an epidemic, making critically needed drugs available en masse in relatively short periods of time. India issued its first compulsory license last year and is considering issuing three more under the guise of making expensive cancer drugs available for the “urgent needs of public health” and for failure to manufacture the pharmaceuticals in India.
Read more…
Witness Testimony and Additional Background
Click here to view the hearing background memo and witness testimony on the Energy and Commerce Committee website.
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