US-India
The governments of the United States and India have been talking about negotiating a bilateral investment treaty for several years. The idea of a broader trade agreement between the two countries has often been mentioned as a longer term goal.
Bilateral relations between the two powers over the past decades have been complex. During the Cold War, India was non-aligned but friendly with Russia. Since 1991, India took a major turn by adopting neoliberalism as an economic frame for the country’s "development" strategy, and relations with the West subsequently thawed. Starting in 2005, India and the US signed a series of major bilateral cooperation agreements including the areas of defence, agriculture and food security, nuclear technology, energy, education, etc. Many of these initiatives met strong criticism at home in India as they frequently create conditions that benefit global capital and elites at the expense of local communities, especially in the rural areas.
In this process, since 2008, the governments of both countries also committed to signing a bilateral investment treaty, but this is taking some time. In 2014 and 2015, India reviewed its earlier "bilateral investment protection and promotion agreements" (BIPPAs) and decided to draw up a model "bilateral investment treaty" (BIT) to replace those BIPPAs. The Indian model BIT is still under debate but it departs from the US model BIT in several respects. Thus it could be a challenge to come to a common agreed text. But US business associations, which include many major TNCs among their members, are pushing hard to finalise a deal. Civil society organisations both in India and the US have been mobilising against the deal.
In parallel to this, India has been revising its policies on foreign direct investment, notably by opening up the country to foreign investment in multibrand retail (e.g. Walmart or Tesco), and on taxation.
US-India trade, in the meantime, has grown massively, with the US having a huge services trade deficit, much of which reflects the growth of outsourced US jobs to India.
Recommended reading:
Kavaljit Singh, "The India-US Bilateral Investment Treaty: Not an easy ride", January 2015
Last updated: 21 August 2015
The US on Wednesday placed India on the “Priority Watch List” for the lack of sufficient measurable improvements to its intellectual property framework
At a joint press meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi last month, American President Donald Trump had said India and the US had agreed to focus on a “comprehensive trade deal".
India have to determine its way forward in this situation. Trump is focused on opening Indian markets for the imports of US agricultural products. India have to decide what we will ask in return from the US.
The first leg of the India-US trade deal will largely be about tariff concessions on goods and would be concluded in around three months.
Civil society groups want the contents of the MoU to be made public before its finalisation to ensure that India resists US demands to influence the implementation of India’s IP legislations.
India and the US have signed an agreement on intellectual property rights (IPR) ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit. The Cabinet Wednesday approved an MoU with the US on the issue of IPRs.
India’s existing and stalled bilateral FTAs started to receive attention from the government last year, even as the country worked to join the RCEP, the world’s “largest” regional trade pact.
A trade deal, even a small one, with New Delhi comprising greater market access for the U.S. is likely to help Trump further consolidate his position in an election year.
While US President Donald Trump is expected to visit India, trade ties between the two countries remain frosty. India’s hope of reclaiming the benefits under the US Generalized System of Preferences scheme has been quashed.
A US-India trade deal will have historic significance, especially if it ushers in a period of strong collaboration to advance a shared bilateral trade agenda and effectively resolves troubles as they arise.
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US-India Business Alliance
The US India Business Alliance (USIBA) was incorporated in response to the extraordinary growth of US-India trade and investment, which despite its tremendous growth, pales in comparison to US-China trade
