Taking the stand that the contributions of Indian IT professionals have immensely benefited the US economy over the years, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu has urged the Trump administration to ease the movement of skilled persons to the United States under its H-1B and l-1 work visas. Prabhu, now here for the first US-India Bilateral Trade Policy Forum meeting under the Trump administration, 'strongly' took up with US Trade Representative Robert lighthizer the difficulties faced by Indian IT companies in obtaining H-1B and l-1 visas for their US operations.
Prabhu's visit has coincided with the latest move by the Trump administration to further tighten the H-1B/l-1 visa regime by making extensions of these work visas more difficult by putting in place increased scrutiny of petitions henceforth.
While pointing out that the skilled Indian professionals have over the years made the American companies more competitive, Prabhu also brought up the issue of 'mismatch' between US visa and social security regimes, the upshot of which is that Indian professionals making social security contributions do not receive their due benefits upon their return to India. To set right this anomaly, he made a strong pitch for a 'totalisation agreement' - a long-pending matter on which Washington has been dragging its feet even while having a similar pact with several other countries. With Indian contributions of the order of $1 bn or so annually on this score, Prabhu urged the US to revisit its position and work towards achieving a totalisation pact.
“I hope they will look into the issue,” Prabhu told reporters after the meeting. He expressed the view that the H-1B/l-1 visa difficulties could hurt the American economy itself, given the fact that the US has immensely benefited from the contributions of Indian IT professionals. Indian techies roughly account for 70 per cent of the foreign professionals working in the US with H-1B visas.
The US side, for its part, brought up the issue of the huge trade deficit that it has run into with India. With the deficit currently put at $29.6 bn, Ambassador lighthizer urged India to improve market access for American products by addressing the issue of trade barriers and high tariffs. He also pressed for stronger Indian protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights.
Acknowledging that both had differing views across several areas, lighthizer, however, noted that two countries were committed to 'redoubling efforts in the future across all areas'. The US, for its part, pressed for strong outcomes in respect of “non-science-based barriers to agricultural trade, continuing and new regulatory and technical barriers to trade that impact sales of US high technology and other products”. It also brought up several agricultural and industrial tariffs and market access in services. On US concerns over trade deficit with India, Prabhu pointed out that India has begun importing American crude oil, with liquefied Natural Gas expected to commence early next year.
Further, Indian air carriers such as Spicejet and Jet Airways have placed orders for over 300 aircraft, valued at several billion dollars. These developments, he said, will go a long way in fulfilling the desire of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump for a free, fair and balanced trade between the two countries.