India-US Totalisation Pact: Goyal Says Dialogue Continues, Will Take Time

Washington, Oct 4 (PTI) Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said that India will continue to engage with the US on the proposed social security or totalisation pact and it will take time.

The proposed agreement seeks to do away with the requirement for an expatriate in either country to pay for social security schemes of the host country.

He said that the issue should have been resolved earlier when the dimensions were manageable.

"Now the dimension of the money collected by the (US) Treasury is so large that for any government, this will be a major decision," he told reporters here.

He added that when the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government came to power in 2014, the country held discussions with the US on the matter.

"The subject that has festered far too long and is not going to resolve over night...So we will continue to have the dialogue with the US...It's going to take time, we recognise that," Goyal said.

He noted that the President Joe Biden administration has sent some "very" detailed questionnaire to India about the social security systems in India, which have all been responded to.

"The social security coverage details that we have shared with them, cover about 930 million people in India, more than the required threshold. So we are eligible for a dialogue and resolution of totalisation and bringing in Social Security Agreement," he said.

At the invitation of the United States Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, Goyal visited America during September 30-October 3. Goyal co-chaired with Raimondo the India-USA CEO Forum on October 2 and the 6th India-USA Commercial Dialogue on October 3.

The issue was raised in the meeting.

Under the totalisation agreement, an expatriate in either country does not need to contribute to the social security schemes of the host country. It will benefit a number of Indians, particularly from the IT sector, who are working in America and paying for social security but are unable to get any benefit out of it.

It is a long-pending demand of India for early conclusion of the totalisation agreement or social security agreement with the US. It aims to protect interests of professionals of Indian origin, who contribute more than USD 1 billion (as per estimates) each year to the US social security.

When asked about allegations of certain quarters that India has high customs duties, Goyal said that every country protects certain goods based on its national interests.

Citing an example, he said, the US has 163 per cent duty on peanut butter because it is a defensive protection to their farmers.

Similarly, India has zero duty on certain goods, it has low duties on a number of items and "certain goods have higher duties", he added.

When asked about resumption of India-Pakistan trade relations, he said the ball is in their (Pakistan's) court as the trade was stopped by them and not India.

Talking about foreign companies choosing to shift base in India, the minister cited the example of iphone maker Apple and said that the company has exported smartphones worth about USD 5 billion during the first four or five months of this fiscal.

"The expectation this year is to increase the exports to probably USD 15 or USD 16 billion. Just for Apple alone," he added.

He also said that the reason for certain companies shifting bases from China to South East Asian nations could be that after RCEP, Chinese firms invested in Asean region in a big way.

"And India does not encourage Chinese investments in India, that could have been a reason," he said.