When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last visited the White House in 2009 he was feted at U.S. President Barack Obama’s first state dinner, a star-studded affair that reflected the excitement about blooming ties between the two big democracies.
Back then, optimists in Washington saw India as a counterbalance to a rising China and a new engine for the U.S. economy. In a dinner toast, Obama talked of his “duty” to bring the two countries closer.
That duty has only been partly fulfilled. As the two leaders prepare to meet again at the White House on Friday for a working bilateral meeting, Obama is under pressure from lobby groups and lawmakers seething at what they see as India’s protectionism and lax enforcement of intellectual property rights.
India’s $60 billion trade with the United States is widely seen as less than it could be and is just an eighth of U.S. trade with China. Even India’s national security adviser accepts there is a perception the relationship is drifting off course.
“It arises from the macro-economic situation. U.S. friends mention concerns about economic reforms and specific policy issues in India. These concerns are not unique to the U.S. They are, first and foremost, of concern to Indians,” National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon said on Friday.
India has still not shaken off memories of foreign domination through trade and it is increasingly hard for the government, ahead of elections next year, to push ahead with economic reforms and deals seen as favouring U.S. companies.
In turn, Indian IT firms which operate in the United States are angered by restrictions on travel visas for skilled workers.
In June, fourteen U.S. business groups took the unusual step of forming a coalition specifically to pressure Obama over India’s perceived protectionist measures, piracy and patent laws.
