India swamped by regulatory issues.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz will finally be making his long-delayed trip to India next month, and will be in the subcontinent from March 10-12 to take part in discussions with high-level officials within the Indian energy sector.
Moniz announced the upcoming visit at the National Press Club on Wednesday, during an event at which he was in attendance. Moniz was originally supposed to visit India back in January, but the trip was postponed because of rising tension between the US and India in the wake of Devyani Khobragade’s arrest on December 12.
Several US-led trips to India were indefinitely postponed, including what was supposed to be Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Biswal’s inaugural visit to India, but now hostilities have cooled enough that travel is being permitted.
But not all is well between the two democracies, as the US continues to investigate – and, some would say, attack – various Indian industries for their lack of standards and for perceived discriminatory practices.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) concluded its eight-day trip to India and announced that it will be taking several measures within the country to ensure that Indian pharmaceutical companies and their plants follow protocol for safe manufacturing and distribution of drugs.
Indian pharmaceutical company Ranbaxy, who has had four plants shut down by the FDA over the past year, was a key instigator of US regulations. The FDA said that it will expand its operations in India to provide better training and supervision of facilities within the country. Additionally, Ranbaxy and pharmaceutical company Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. settled litigation with the state of New York over allegations that they had an under-the-table agreement to protect exclusivity of their sales in certain markets.
Earlier this month, the US announced that it would be taking India to the World Trade Organization (WTO) over allegations that India’s solar program is engaged in discriminatory practices that encourage the purchasing of Indian-made products as opposed to those from the US. But right now, India is fighting against the US tooth and nail at the WTO over the former’s steel industry.
Essar, Jindal, and Tata Steel, the three titans of India’s steel sector, are contending that US “countervailing duties” on importing steel from India are essentially punitive, and discourage the purchasing of Indian steel. In fact, India has completely stopped exporting carbon-based steel to the US as a result of these duties.
An interim report submitted by the Dispute Settlement Panel said that the overseeing committee needs more details before it comes to a definitive verdict on the case. As it stands, India is still the fourth largest steel producer in the world, and is still one of the fastest-growing steel industries; last year along, it created over 81 million tons of steel.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com