India has once again taken up with the US the problems faced by Indian IT companies in obtaining work visas (H-1B and L-1). In the recent bilateral Trade Policy Forum meeting, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu pointed out to US Trade Represenative Robert Lighthizer the need to ease visa restrictions. Given the fact that India has been making similar requests for the last several years without success, one may wonder at the futility of such demands. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, more or less avoided the issue in his meeting with Trump earlier this year. But it actually helps to keep raking up old issues.

The Obama administration had increased visa fees applicable on Indian IT companies (employing more Indians than Americans) twice in a row, instead of listening to the country’s plea of removing the penal amount. The Trump administration has been talking tough on work visas. If Prabhu had avoided the subject, the US would have taken that to mean that it can take any steps on the front without inviting objections from India, which is its major trade partner.

One need not look beyond the US to understand the importance of continued resistance. It has been hounding India to change its intellectual property laws to favour pharma MNCs, despite New Delhi saying that its laws were compliant with the TRIPS Agreement. While India has not changed its IPR laws, it has been acting cautiously in the area of granting compulsory licences to generic companies to produce life-saving patented drugs. In fact, it has not gone beyond issuing one licence.

While there is no direct link between the US pressure on IPR and the low issuance of CLs in India, the fact is that objections from trading partners do make a country uneasy about unfriendly measures. So protest, we must.

Senior Deputy Editor

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