India to raise H1B Visa issue with US: Sharma

Union Commerce & Industry Minister Anand Sharma, on Friday, said India would once again raise the cap on H1B Visa with the US shortly.

Briefing reporters, he said, India has already taken up the matter with the US on more than one occasion and written twice to the US trade represenative in this regard. He said the same would be coming up at the joint trade talks to be held in Washington later this month. Stating that US must honour the WTO commitments as also recognise the immense contribution that our professionals are making to that country with their talent and value they bring to the table. It is because there is a shortage of highly skilled professionals in their country that several Fortune 500 companies are setting up their R&D centres in India and thereby creating jobs. Besides, even Indian companies are creating jobs for US citizens in the US, he added.

Observing that India is against any form of restrictive trade practicies, he said, “The idea of trade pacts is to bring down barriers and not advocate protectionism and reciprocity of policies for mutual benefit and not vice-versa.” Sharma also said he would be championing the industry’s demands on reducing the interest rates as high cost of credit will only impede unfettered growth of the industry in the country. On the issue of Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT), he said, once the direct tax code was in place other regimes have to be harmonised within its broader framework.

Earlier, at a meeting with CEOs, he said southern states in the country have been the major driver of growth over the last decade. Stating that they have become centres of manufacturing in sectors like textiles, automobiles, defence, aerospace and pharmaceuticals, he said that South India contributes 22 per cent of country’s GDP.
Earlier, laying the foundation stone for Nano-Manufacturing Technology Centre, he said, a meeting to be Chaired by Prime Minister will discuss the draft manufacturing policy in New Delhi on June 9. “The objective is to identify key instrumentalities by which the share of manufacturing can be augmented from 15 per cent to 25 per cent of GDP by 2025,” he said.

More: http://www.deccanherald.com/content/166247/india-raise-h1b-visa-issue.html

Protections as a form of boycott of some other country that does not have the same standards of treating its people, is something different.

A boycott just for a country is about money.

A boycott that is about not buying from people that do not live up to standards is something else. Or raising the price of goods to make up for race to the bottom.



The problem is people setting trade practices are the people that think in terms of money first, or support consolidations.

So they got rid of money first tariffs, and that is good, but they also got rid of the value of tariffs for bad worker conditions or lack of worker negotiation rights.



The better situation is for people to be educated what they pay when buying goods from countries that use bad working conditions. But that requires breaking up consolidations also, so people have spare money to make that decision, and so stores do not just have a price on goods as the only buying factor.

The true price of buying from countries that do not support rights, should be right next to the price tag on the grocery shelf. And people should be educated about the conditions in those places.

It is not a free will choice for someone to support slavery wages in factories with very low wages, if they don't know if that is being done.

And there is enough labor and production to solve the 'needs' of the people. How can there be unemployment, and need for goods. Only a failed distribution system can do that.