Commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman and her counterpart - United States trade representative Michael Froman on Tuesday met at the Indo-US trade policy forum. This is the first meeting of the forum that has taken place in 4 years.
The biggest takeaway is that India and United States (US) have decided to reengage on trade related issues. 20 video conferences scheduled over the next one year on issues ranging from investments to IPR to services to tariffs. On totalisation agreement, according to sources, there has been good progress.
For the first time, the US has decided to take onboard India's views on having a totalisation agreement. USD 1 billion annually gets stuck in United States because professionals working in the US of Indian origin cannot repatriate those savings or social sector contributions to India because of the absence of a totalisation agreement, there has been good progress on this front and dialogue will continue.
On IPR, stands of both countries remain the same. India still maintains that its compulsory licensing regime, the Section 3d of the Patents Act which prevents evergreening of patents they are all TRIPS compliant. Of course, US expresses concerns on these issues.
On visas again there was dialogue. There were concerns expressed by Indians on high visa fees and norms which Indians feel are against companies operating in United States. There were explanations given by US officials.
Last but not the least, there has been engagement on tariffs as well. Of course, it needs to be seen how the engagement through video conferences happen in the next one year.
According to sources, there should be positive outcomes that should be seen in the course of the next 12 months on India-US trade and investment issues.
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