Washington DC: US India Political Action Committee (USINPAC), the Washington, DC based advocacy organization, today slammed the move to designate India a “priority foreign country” (PFC) in the ongoing trade disputes between the United States and India. It 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.
The trade allegations against India are being mostly led by a coalition of US companies and organizations 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.
“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. The governments in the US and India must avoid the impression that relations between two countries are adrift. Today the people and businesses of both the United States and India are engaging more than ever in history, and such disputes should be resolved via dialogue rather than threats and sanction”, said Robinder Sachdev, director of India affairs of USINPAC.
Over the past decade, especially ever since its role in promoting the US-India civil nuclear accord, USINPAC has emerged as an effective advocacy organization in the United States for stronger relations with India. Most recently it batted to pre-empt various anti-Modi resolutions in the US Congress on the grounds that any such move by the US will amount to an “interference in internal affairs of the world’s largest democracy”.
Trade relations between the US and India are seeing a rash of issues where US and India are fighting bitter battles. These issues have been compounded by the DevyaniKhobragade episode which set off the Indian foreign service on a strong path of “reciprocity” in US-India relations on the governmental levels.
Recently the Indian pharmaceuticals industry has been hauled up by the US FDA for its lack of quality controls in the medicines that it manufactures. Even though US FDA says that flies in test labs of Ranbaxy laboratories are a strong reason to ban Ranbaxy products in the US, it also raises the important question of quality of drugs available in the Indian market. In addition, big pharmaceuticals companies of the United States are also unhappy with India’s patent regime, and are pushing for greater protection of their intellectual property.
Meanwhile, other issues on the “trade wars” between the US and India include safety of Indian passenger aircrafts, the matter of domestic preference for solar panel manufacturers, and piracy of creative content – films, and music. Of course, the matter of India’s liability laws on nuclear energy is another sore point in relations.
The USINPAC initiative for “Leadership Dialogues for Fair Trade” includes sensitizing the Indian American community in the US regarding the core issues of trade disputes between the US and India. 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 center of some of these disputes.
Source: APN News
