Trade Representative expected to announce details Monday afternoon.
By Deepak Chitnis.
WASHINGTON, DC: US Trade Representative Michael Froman will reportedly announce a new trade enforcement action against India on Monday afternoon, which analysts say could further provoke increasingly hostile tensions between the two countries and add to the growing crackdown on India that the US has been pursuing over the last several weeks.
The enforcement action is said to be regarding India’s patent protection laws, which the US has repeatedly criticized for being ineffectual and glaringly flawed compared to the laws of other nations around the world. Last month, India was ranked last in the world when it came to protecting intellectual property, and it now looks like the US wants to take action against India for being so lax on those laws.
The US petitioned its Chamber of Commerce this past Friday to investigate India and turn up the heat on getting its laws up to international standards. At the tie same time, the US International Trade Commission is gearing up for hearings this week, on Wednesday and Thursday, which will look into India’s investment and trade practices. Representatives of manufacturing and pharmaceutical companies are said to be paying close attention to whether India heeds the international cry for reform.
Should the US decide to further probe into India, it will further strain US-India ties, which are still recovering from the blowback of the Devyani Khobragade incident that lasted from December through January. That incident still may not be entirely over, as the US has not yet dropped charges and, as recently as this month, allowed prosecutor Preet Bharara to continue pursuing the government’s case.
The US aviation watchdog agency, the FAA, also downgraded India’s airline system to Category II, a tier generally reserved for nations with dilapidated infrastructure and poor economic resources. Additionally, several pharmaceutical plants throughout India have been closed because of investigations by US agencies, namely the FDA – the most recent such closing was of a Ranbaxy plant in Toansa, located in the northern part of the country.
Yet India, for all this brouhaha, does not seem to be aware that they are under the microscope. Trade Minister Anand Sharma told reporters in New Delhi that he’s not aware of any impending action from the US, saying that he has not been notified of anything by his American counterparts.
Froman’s press conference is set for 2:00 PM, Monday afternoon.