Apples And Mangoes: Here Is What Happened At US-India Bilateral Trade Talks

In the recently concluded bilateral Trade Policy Forum, India and the United States discussed issues ranging from food safety clearance mechanism for export of mangoes from India to relaxation of local sourcing norms for opening of Apple stores in India.

India’s local sourcing norms that govern the operations of single-brand retail stores in the country have remained a major hurdle for companies that wish to establish retail chains for direct sales of their products. Though companies classified as having ‘cutting-edge technology’ were initially allowed to bypass the sourcing norms for up to a period of eight years, new changes introduced in the policy require firms to comply with 30% local sourcing norm.

The US delegation at a bilateral trade forum urged India to relax its stringent sourcing norms to allow single brand store such as Apple to operate in the country.

Speaking at the University of Chicago Centre, trade representative of the United States government, Michael Forman said that liberalisation of retail, financial and professional services will help India in creating an open and non-discriminatory system that promotes market growth. The US delegation also expressed concerns over India’s decision to renegotiate the existing Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement with 72 countries.

Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitaraman, who represented India at the bilateral trade forum, called upon the US delegation to put into place a food safety clearance mechanism for Indian products such as mangoes, grapes and rice.  Sitharaman also raised the issue of totalization agreement at the forum and urged the US delegation to identify this as a major non-tariff measure which restricts the movement of information technology professionals.

The two sides also discussed Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement. India changed its patent legislation in 2005, moving from a process patent regime to a product patent one. The US has, time and again, stated that India’s Intellectual Property Right (IPR) laws do not provide adequate protection to all patent holders. The Indian delegation clarified that the country will not tighten IPR rules beyond TRIPS mandate formulated by the World Trade Organisation.