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Monday Sep 23, 2024
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“Since taking office, Prime Minister Modi has declared India ‘open for business’ and promised to incentivize investment and ‘give the world a favorable opportunity to trade with and produce in India,’” the Alliance for Fair Trade with India said in a letter to Obama.
“Thus far, however, the new Indian government has produced troubling policies of its own,” the group said, adding: “These actions send perplexing and contradictory new signals about India’s role in the global marketplace.”
The letter highlighted India’s blockage of a key World Trade Organization agreement reached in Bali last year, which overshadowed a July 30-Aug. 1 visit to India by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
The business alliance also complained about India’s raised tariffs and “burdensome” new testing requirements on imported information and communication technology products.
U.S. officials say the United States will press Modi to end the WTO blockage during his visit, something that could dampen the mood of a trip aimed at revitalizing a strategic relationship Washington sees as a key counterbalance in Asia to an increasingly assertive China.
Also on Thursday, U.S. Congressional leaders dealing with trade and finance wrote to the U.S. International Trade Commission calling for a second investigation into India’s “unfair” trade practices, detailing any changes under Modi. They called for the ITC to deliver a report to Congress on Sept. 24, 2015, a statement said.
A report requested in August last year is due to be delivered to Congress on Dec. 15 this year.
Stephen Ezell, senior trade policy analyst at the Washington based Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, told a teleconference that Modi had taken some positive steps, including an easing of some restrictions on investment in the defense, insurance and railway sectors.
“However ... we’ve also seen the continuation of existing — and even the promulgation of some new — trade-distorting policies that do give us some pause,” he said.
Chris Moore, of the National Association of Manufacturers, said Modi and his administration were “saying positive things.” “But their actions tell a different story.”
Patrick Kilbride, of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, welcomed the Indian government’s plans to review the environment for intellectual property rights, but said it remained “very poor.”
The chamber would take the pledges at face value, he said, but added: “Recent history has given us many reasons to be wary.”
Modi is due to arrive in the United States on Friday for his first visit as prime minister and has meetings scheduled with 17 U.S. corporate chiefs including those of Google, IBM, GE, Goldman Sachs and Boeing.
Analysts say maintaining a positive mood will be important during the visit, given that Modi was denied a U.S. visa in 2005 after more than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed in riots in Gujarat.
There was no immediate comment from the Indian embassy in Washington on the letter from the U.S. business lobby.
US court issues summons against ModiHindu: Even before he touched down on US soil after a nine-year visa ban, a federal court in New York has issued summons against the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his role in presiding over the anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat during 2002 when he was Chief Minister of the state. The lawsuit, filed by the American Justice Center (AJC), a non-profit human rights organisation identified among the plaintiffs “two survivors of the horrific and organised violence of Gujarat 2002”, and called for a response from Mr. Modi based on the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) and the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA). Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, whose law firm represents the plaintiffs, explained via email to The Hindu that the summons issued by the Federal Court of Southern District of New York requires Mr. Modi to respond within 21 days after it is served. The summons document, which also alludes to the 21-day deadline, notes that if the Prime Minster fails to answer the attached complaint, “Judgement by default will be entered against you for the relief demanded in the complaint,” adding that Modi was expected to file his answer or motion with the court. Specifically the 28 page complaint filed was said to seek compensatory and punitive damages and “charges PM Modi with committing crimes against humanity, extra-judicial killings, torture and inflicting mental and physical trauma on the victims, mostly from the Muslim community”. |
