Industry guardedly hopeful over Modi’s impact in India

NAM and U.S. Chamber hope India’s new prime minister will stoke U.S-India trade.    Representatives from the National Association of Manufacturers the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Intellectual Property Center said they are guardedly optimistic that India’s new Prime Minister Narendra Modi will improve India’s foreign trade environment for U.S. interests.
   Patrick Kilbride, executive director of international IP at the GIPC, said he was willing to take Modi at his word after the prime minister said he sees the United States as an important trade ally, during a visit to New York and Washington, D.C. in late September. Modi was elected prime minister in May.
   Kilbride, speaking at a briefing in Washington organized by the National Foreign Trade Council, said it’s important for India to make strides in protecting intellectual property from high-innovation industries like technology and pharmaceuticals.
   He was joined by Chris Moore, NAM’s senior director of international business policy. Moore said U.S. manufacturers have been disheartened by backsliding in the openness of India’s economy over the past three years, prior to Modi’s election. He said U.S. companies have increasingly been squeezed out of opportunities to grow their business in India by restrictive local content requirements or punitive tariffs.
   Both Moore and Kilbride said they were hopeful that Modi, who rode in the power on the wave of pro-business progress in his home state of Gujarat (where he was chief minister), would prioritize re-opening India’s economy. Kilbride said he was particularly keen to see India establish a formal policy for intellectual property rights.
   Both also pointed to the need for India to re-join substantive negotiations on a new global trade facilitation pact under the auspices of the World Trade Organization. India balked at signing the pact this summer over concerns that it could not meet what it considered unreasonable reductions in agriculture subsidies.