India to protest protectionism

Sandeep Dikshit
Tribune News Service 
New Delhi, June 10

India in concert with China and Russia will call for “joint resistance” against unilateral protectionism at the forthcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s meeting of heads of state that will be attended by PM Narendra Modi, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, said sources here.

While agreeing to toughen the language at the meeting of SCO’s foreign ministers (the document has since been taken down from the Net), India is also readying a package that it hopes will assuage US grievances on the trade front, said sources.

This decision was taken at a meeting of the council of foreign ministers of SCO countries last month where then Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj had represented India. The sources said the term “joint resistance” is a step up from the previous SCO formulation of asking the world community to “stand up” against the American sidestepping of multilateral bodies like the UN and the WTO. Both China and India are facing an increasingly demanding US while Russia is facing a squeeze on its defence exports.

On US complaint of price control on medical devices, India has offered a more liberal reading of its drugs order that will benefit manufacturers of several foreign medical devices and drugs. Till late last year, the exemption from patents and drugs control was only for products not produced elsewhere and developed through indigenous R&D. The more liberal interpretation will allow US companies to again sell high-end drug eluting stents, hip and knee implants and intra-uterine devices, and condoms without price controls.

On the ban on US dairy products, India is not ready to accept the US guarantee that its dairy products have never consumed feed containing internal organs or blood meal. Instead, it will ask it to follow the system of certification accepted by Australia, New Zealand and the EU.

However, India has pointed out that the US demand to lower tariffs on mobile phones, smart watches and telecom network equipment will actually benefit China. India has also indicated flexibility in its e-commerce policy and data localisation that is feared to hit Walmart, Amazon, Mastercard and Visa. 

Modi to meet Xi Jinping, Putin in Bishkek

• PM Narendra Modi will meet the Russian and Chinese Presidents, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, respectively, in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, later this week 
• The MEA said this will be PM Modi’s first interaction with leaders of Eurasia’s leading powers after the recent parliamentary poll
• Later this month, he is scheduled to meet US President Donald Trump
• Meetings, to be held on margins of SCO summit, will be structured, meaning both sides will have agenda points and presence of diplomats 
• Senior MEA officials reiterated their earlier stand that there was no bilateral scheduled as yet between PM Modi and Pak PM Imran Khan