A high-level official delegation from the US headed by Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker will be in New Delhi this week to hold discussions on the bilateral economic agenda set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama early this year.
Pritzker is scheduled to meet Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday. The two will take up issues to intensify cooperation in trade and investment including moving ahead on the pending bilateral investment treaty (BIT), a Commerce Ministry official told BusinessLine .
Discussion on India’s intellectual property rights (IPR) policy being drafted by the government is also likely to top Pritzker’s agenda.
“India and the US have been working together in a number of areas for some time, but US President Obama’s visit in January helped in prioritising issues and putting things in perspective,” the official said.
While Pritzker had raised the issue of IPR with Sitharaman in January as well, the Minister had advised that the US Commerce Department should submit its comments on the draft IPR policy that is on the government’s website. The US pharmaceuticals industry has been claiming that India’s IPR laws discriminate against foreign patent holders, but New Delhi has so far maintained that its laws are compliant with the international TRIPS agreement and there won’t be any changes in legislation.
Pritzker is also likely to ask about the status of the model text for bilateral investment promotion and protection agreement (BIPA), which has not yet been cleared by the Union Cabinet. New Delhi has said that it will begin negotiations on a BIT, which is a pact to protect foreign investments, only after the model text is in place.
Sitharaman could take up the issue of time-bound negotiations on a social security agreement that could help its IT companies operating in the US save about $4 billion in social security payments annually. Work visa problems being faced by IT companies in the US is another important area for India.
Better facilitation of US investments in India by sorting out problems faced by individual companies and the increase in FDI in the insurance sector are other issues that the US side could take up.