Ways and Means Leaders Issue Stern Warning on India Ahead of Bilateral Meeting
India’s recent trend towards trade and investment barriers -- disregarding intellectual property rights, barring market access, closing investment sectors -- represent a troubling trend President Obama should address at next week’s U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue, 35 members of the House Ways and Means Committee said in a June 20 letter to Obama and other trade-related agency heads. The meeting provides a “timely opportunity to encourage India to pursue market-based policies and reforms instead of erecting barriers that hurt U.S. exporters, investors, and workers, as well as its own citizens,” the letter said (read it here). The Obama administration should focus on reducing tariffs -- India’s are some of the highest in the world -- as well as reducing opaque, discriminatory procedures, the letter said. Such regulations include local content requirements on electronic good procurement, compulsory licenses or revoking of pharmaceutical patents, and “paltry” market access for U.S. agricultural goods, the letter said.
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India’s pharmaceutical rulings are contrary to World Trade Organization obligations and the Doha Declaration, and create a “very real negative impact on U.S. jobs,” the members said. India’s continued trade restrictions could potentially influence preferential trade treatment by the U.S.: “As programs such as the Generalized System of Preferences, of which India remains the largest beneficiary, face reauthorization, we see growing concerns about the bilateral economic relationship,” the letter said. “As strong supporters of that relationship, we hope that the trade and investment problems that our businesses and workers face in the Indian market are resolved quickly.”
The letter echoes the concerns of one sent last week by Senate Finance Committee leaders (see 13061703). The House members also urged Obama to restart the Trade Policy Forum with India, which has been dormant since 2010, and map a trade and investment strategy between the two countries.